"At a time when workers are making great sacrifices in blood as well as sweat, we must mount a counter offensive against cold-blooded exploiters who believe workers are expendable," he added.
Owens, the ranking Democrat on the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and the Workforce said the hearing will be held at the Borough of Manhattan Community College,199 Chambers Street and the West Side Highway. The hearing will begin at 11 a.m.
"It is vital to discuss how we can better protect workers who respond to catastrophes such as the World Trade Center site," said Owens.
He notes reports from recent preliminary findings from the World Trade Center Worker & Volunteer Medical Screening Program indicate more than 50 percent of the workers who responded to the rescue and clean-up at the WTC have suffered respiratory and other WTC-related symptoms up to a year following 9/11.
"It is appropriate for this hearing to be held on Worker Memorial Day; a day when we 'Mourn for the dead and fight for the living,'" he noted.