Local 157
John McGinley
It’s no secret that the brothers and sisters of the New York City District Council of Carpenters have some remarkable stories to share. From working on exciting landmarks throughout New York City to the lifelong friendships they make along the way, our members have a lot of memories made from their time in our union. One such member who has no shortage of memories to reflect on is John McGinley of Local 157. John has a great amount of experience in his 40 years as a union carpenter, both on the jobsite and off of it.
A former resident of Queens, John, was initiated into Local 608 (later Local 157) on October 15, 1985. He quickly found success in the union, working on a handful of lucrative construction projects. While John worked hard and made relationships along the way, one of his most somber moments in the union came during the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
“I was working for Rivco, and we were at the World Trade Center. There were a handful of us on the crew including Petar Dunat, Michael Minogue, Dennis Cullagh, myself, and a few others. We were getting deliveries, and our supervisor asked me to go out onto the street to see where the delivery truck was. I went and walked up West Broadway and found the truck stuck in traffic. The driver estimated it would be an hour before he finally got to us, so I called my supervisor and started to walk back to the jobsite. Just as I’m by the loading dock of 2 World Trade Center, I hear explosions. All of a sudden, people are running for their lives.”
Like the thousands of people nearby and millions watching around the world, it quickly became clear to John that something awful was unfolding in front of him as he watched a second plane hit the towers. Debris crashed down on top of him and his crew, and they quickly ran for cover. Yet, even in a moment of panic, John made sure to protect those around him. Upon seeing a woman frozen with fear in the street, he ran to her, picked her up, and carried her to safety. Thankfully, John made it home that night, unlike so many who lost their lives, but just two days later he found himself at the smoking mound of wreckage, remains, fragments, and ash– “The Pile.”
“The day after the attack, I called a buddy of mine that worked with me and I said I was going down to help out. I picked him up the next morning and we went into the city. We signed in and they ordered us to go to 12th Avenue and stay there. Well, we found members of our local, about 15 of us, and we decided to head to The Pile. An employee from the NYC Transit Authority saw us walking with our hard hats, change of clothes, and water. Once we told him we were going down to help out he called a bus for us, and we went onto the site.”
In the hours, days, weeks, months after the attack, thousands of union carpenters, construction workers, police officers, and firefighters, and other responders worked around the clock on The Pile to recover, clean-up, and rebuild in the years following.
In the weeks after September 11th, John started back to work with his company, albeit with only a meager supply of tools, as his toolbox was lost during the attacks. As fate would have it, he would get that very toolbox back during the recovery part of the cleanup, courtesy of our Local 1556 Timbermen. As John puts it, “It was remarkable. In November that year, I get a call from a member on my e-board. He says they found my toolbox. I’m thinking to myself that it has to be a mistake. But this member tells me that the Timbermen were working at the site, and they spotted a toolbox with my name on it. I went down to the District Council headquarters and was astounded when I saw it. I never thought I would see it again!”
Unfortunately, in the decade following 9/11, another tragedy struck John. Within a year of the attack, John began having pain in his stomach along with some breathing issues. He took advantage of the good healthcare the union provides its members. “In the union we have amazing health insurance that is little or no cost to members and every member should be proud of that and take advantage of it!”
Knowing he had been at Ground Zero, his doctor sent him to a pulmonologist for his lungs. At the time, they diagnosed him with what they thought was COPD. He continued working until 2012, when a nasty fall on the job site put John on Workers Compensation, and ultimately forced an untimely retirement from work. The fall resulted in three surgeries and a lengthy amount of physical therapy. Fast forward to 2017, and John tragically received some of the worst news of his lifetime.
“I was back at the pulmonologist and he’s going over some scans and he drops his hands in astonishment. He looks at me and I just hear him start telling me that I have cancer. It was surreal. He referred me to a specialist. I went to a hospital nearby and saw an oncologist and after a series of scans and tests, I was formally diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer.”
As unsettling as this news was for John and his family, it was even worse when the doctor overseeing his care gave him sixteen weeks to live. By then, the cancer had spread to his brain. The oncologist said he could start treatment in about three weeks. That was answered with a hard NO from John’s wife, Bernadette.
“My wife absolutely wasn’t going to let me wait three weeks. We heard about the partnership the union has with Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) that provides the highest quality of cancer care for us members and our families, and everyone said they were the best. We learned that we had to go though Mount Sinai, as they control the health care for people who got cancer from being at Ground Zero. My wife worked night and day to get me in to see a doctor there. She started calling on a Monday, and that Thursday I had my first appointment. The incredible team there started me on new medications, immunotherapies.”
Thanks to extraordinary health care for union members, an equally extraordinary partnership with MSK, and the determination of a wife with a heart filled with love for her husband, John miraculously made it through the grim 16-week prognosis from 2017.
The immunotherapy combined with radiation treatment kept the cancer at bay. And thanks to The WTC Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program (MSP) which received federal funding in April 2002, John’s treatment was entirely covered. The Program has successfully recruited nearly 22,000 responders and serves as a model to assess the health of populations exposed to environmental hazards as a result of natural and man-made disasters.
John still spends a fair part of his time with the various doctors on his care team, but he also spends it encouraging his fellow union brothers and sisters to get checked out for any medical issues that can be attributed to their time at Ground Zero.
“Its so important that everyone get checked out, and that everyone apply for the WTC MSP program. When people I know from The Pile ask if they should get checked out and apply for the health funding, my first response is always asking them why they haven’t done it yet! But please, get checked out. Even if you’re feeling healthy. I always say, everyone feels healthy until they don’t.”
John has spent years in treatment with MSK, so when the union asked him to provide testimony in support of a proposed MSK project that would provide hundreds of thousands of job hours for membership and would provide high quality health care to thousands of people, he jumped at the offer. That heath care is something that John knows a lot about.
“I was eager to speak at this approval hearing, both on behalf of myself and also on behalf of my union. The jobs the project will provide is one thing. But the health care and treatments it will provide is a whole different story. I said it myself in the hearing when I spoke in favor of the project: if not for MSK, I would be dead. That’s the honest truth. I tell everyone I know, if you’re feeling sick, run to MSK. Don’t go anywhere else except MSK!”
With the help of John’s testimony, the project has now been approved and will be built union. You can read more about this WIN on page 17.
John has also had time to reflect on the 18 members who passed away in the September 11th attacks, saying he “thinks about them every day,” and the many brothers and sisters who have lost their lives to September 11th-related illnesses.
His words of advice are that his fellow union members get checked out.
“Brothers and sisters, please, get checked out and take care of yourselves. If not for you, then for your families. If there’s one thing I want you all to take from this it’s to please take the time to get yourself checked out. It can save your life.”
