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CNN Live At Daybreak

Changed in a Moment: Jobs Lost

Aired October 05, 2001 - 07:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: About 1,000 hotel workers, another 1,000 who cleaned and ran the twin towers and many other people affected by this. Lots of jobs that are lost.

Maria Hinojosa has more on all this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A doctor's appointment for a baby on the way and a strong heartbeat should be all about joy. Instead, Nexi (ph) and Ivan have worry on their faces. Their baby is due in less than a week, and they both lost their jobs at the World Trade Center.

IVAN ALMANDAREZ: I started working when I was 17. I'm 26 years old. I've been there almost nine years and that was the only job I had all my life. And now it's gone.

HINOJOSA: Ivan was a maintenance man. His wife cleaned offices. "It was like my second home,'' she says. Ivan started working at the towers two days after the first bombing in 1993. He wasn't afraid then. Now, he's consumed with fear and grief.'

I. ALMANDAREZ: I told one of my co-workers, I'm going in there. I'm going in there. I'm going to see if there's anybody on the concourse, you know. "Don't go there,'' he said. "You know, your wife is pregnant, you just got married, you've got a kid.'' He said, "Don't go in there, you know. And I was about to go in there, and he said, "No, don't. I'm not going to let you go anywhere.'' And then he stopped me and, you know, we just started crying.

HINOJOSA: He emigrated from Nicaragua as a child to escape the war there. He made it in New York with no one's help. Now, Ivan is relying on aid to get by.

I. ALMANDAREZ: I'm at the point that I need all the help that I can get, because you know, I have a baby coming and I've got another son to support. So it made it harder for me, a lot harder.

HINOJOSA: They had just put their savings into a new apartment. The Red Cross will pay for one month's rent on the lease he signed just a day before the explosions. Today is the first day they were able to buy food, using a voucher for $115, also from the Red Cross. He used to make $17 an hour, but now all there is is window shopping and tears, not only for himself, but for his co-workers. Thirty of them died.

I. ALMANDAREZ: I want to see New York rise again. I want people to get decent salaries. I want people to have jobs, don't feel the way we feel all these weeks.

HINOJOSA: While his wife folds the little they have for a baby scheduled to be born on October 11, one month to the day of the attacks.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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