(NEW YORK CITY) - In all the worries and angst over loss of jobs nationwide, what is often overlooked is that there are certain skills, observations and alertness only humans can perform - such as preventing a catastrophic building collapse in Midtown Manhattan.

That’s what happened at 235 East 42nd Street on July 7th, when two Members of Steamfitters Local 638 discovered buckling beams, sagging floors and falling concrete at a massive condo conversion project’s 21st story.

They alerted supervisors, got out and got every other Worker - Union and Non-Union - out, fast.

And then, responding to a 911 call, Police and Fire Fighters arrived and evacuated several blocks.

Traffic snarled for hours, and people fled hotels and businesses - but nobody got hurt.

The building, the former headquarters of the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Company, was being converted from a 22-story office tower to a 37-story future residential building. 

But to add 15 floors, you need to reinforce the building’s structural steel - Local 638 President Robert Bartels and Cliff Johnsen, the Local’s Business Agent for Midtown East, said in a telephone interview with People’s World. 

Apparently, that didn’t happen.

There was also no exterior bracing on the building.

On July 7th, the two Steamfitters “started to notice the windows were cracking. And then the concrete was dropping down to the next floor,” said Johnsen. “And the walls were collapsing.” 

When you add 15 or 16 floors to an existing building, its steel reinforcing vertical structure “has to be buoyed up or changed,” one of the two said.

It wasn’t.

The two Steamfitters on the 21st floor alerted Johnsen and an unidentified supervisor called 911.

The two Workers got out and got everyone else out.

The Steamfitters and the Elevator Constructors are the only Union Workers on the condo conversion project.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: Union Steamfitters prevent catastrophic midtown Manhattan building crash – People's World