Saturday, August 21, 2010

New York construction workers vow not to work on the Ground Zero mosque


From Eye on the World:

(NY Daily News) A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero.

"It's a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground," said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

"I wouldn't work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11," Kaiser said.

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the "Hard Hat Pledge" on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

"Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country," said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. "People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there."

"Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it," he said. "I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero."

A planned 13-story community center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, Park51 has exploded into a national debate.

Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association, said unions have not yet taken a "formal position" on Park51, but he understands why members would be hesitant to work there.

"It's a very difficult dilemma for the contractors and the organized labor force because we are experiencing such high levels of unemployment," he said. "Yet at the same time, this is a very sacred sight to the union guys."

"There were construction workers killed on 9/11 and many more who got horribly sick cleaning up Ground Zero," Coletti said. "It's very emotional."

L.V. Spina, a Manhattan construction worker who created anti-mosque stickers that some workers are slapping on their hardhats, said he would "rather pick cans and bottles out of trash cans" than build the Islamic center near Ground Zero.

"But if they moved it somewhere else, we would put up a prime building for these people," he said. "Hell, you could do it next to my house in Rockaway Beach, I would be fine with it. But I'm not fine with it where blood has been spilled."

More...

4 comments:

revereridesagain said...

Weasel Zippers is reporting that Steven Emerson has unearthed 13 hours worth of audio tapes of Rauf defending all things Radical Islam including OBL and Wahabism and calling for the end of Israel. He's releasing them next week. Let's see what that does for the real estate negotiations.

Damien said...

Pastorius.

Lets hope the Mosque developers have a hard time finding anyone willing to build, than again money talks and some people in the area may not really care, or not care enough. Not to mention the possibility that they maybe pressured into it, by the politically correct.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm what would it take to mix a truck of concrete with pigsblood?Or 100 trucks?

Pastorius said...

Hell, they ought to pull that stunt even if they build the fucking mosque somewhere else.

Nuke Imam Feisal Rauf.