9-09-05, 9:48 am
Workers helping workers. That is what the labor movement is all about. Because of President Bush's failed leadership and the inadequacy of the response by the agencies under his authority to Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding in New Orleans and the damage in Mississippi and Alabama, working families have had to dig deep into their limited resources to come to the aid of the victims of the disaster.
And they have done so without hesitation and with great generosity.
All across the labor movement, unions and union members are rushing to get urgently needed assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina – providing front-line rescue efforts, meeting emergency construction needs, stepping in to teach children and giving funds and items. Working people are the first to pitch in and put their union values to work, and they are the ones who will keep doing it long after the TV cameras are gone.
According to a recent announcement by the AFL-CIO, union members and other working family activists have contributed more than $223,000 to the Hurricane Relief Fund of the AFL-CIO's Union Community Fund.
The AFL-CIO, state federations and central labor councils are setting up Worker Centers in Houston; Pearl, Miss.; Mobile, Ala.; Atlanta; and Baton Rouge, La. At the centers, displaced workers can learn about jobs, get instant access to computers, benefit from their unions' health and welfare services and find basic relief.
To provide greater access to communication technology for evacuees, the AFL-CIO has shipped computers to the sites. These computers are helping evacuees and others to get up-to-date information and let loved ones know they are safe.
The Worker Centers will identify priority needs of evacuees in their areas and will collect and distribute donated supplies. AFL-CIO Community Services liaisons, AFL-CIO staff and AFT volunteers are on their way to help the state federations run the centers.
Union members are volunteering to run the Worker Centers. They are also answering the AFL-CIO's call to help staff Red Cross sites and other aid distribution sites in disaster areas.
In order to help reestablish telephone links to disaster areas, the AFL-CIO has sent satellite-type phones to Baton Rouge and areas of Mississippi that were cut off from communication by the hurricane.
The labor federaton has also convened a task force to determine federal legislative and regulatory changes needed to improve the federal disaster unemployment relief program, meet critical health care, housing and education needs and ensure the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is available for Katrina's victims. The task force is working to pressure Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chair Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and ranking Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) to provide legislative and regulatory priorities in these areas.
In Baton Rouge, five building trades locals are using their halls as 'processing centers' to connect displaced workers in shelters with new jobs. The Sheet Metal Workers, Boilermakers, Carpenters, Plumbers and Pipe Fitters and Iron Workers have contributed $100,000 to provide funds, transportation and moving assistance for workers and their families who relocate for work.
Many affiliate unions have created relief funds to assist members. A great example is the Painters and Allied Trades' Finishing Industries Disaster Relief Fund to assist more than 1,400 members displaced by the storm. IUPAT leadership authorized a $1 million donation to the fund and called on its 140,000-plus members for donations. District Council 21 in Philadelphia has pledged more than $100,000 to the fund, which now is approaching the $2 million mark.
In addition, the Finishing Contractors Association (FCA), which represents many IUPAT employers, has pledged to raise $2 million to assist IUPAT members and contractors affected by the disaster. IUPAT and the FCA now are working together to create a national job bank for members and to provide shelter for members who travel to work in their new jobs. Union relief funds are listed on the AFL-CIO's hurricane relief webpage.
The Union Plus Credit Card Disaster Relief Fund offers cardholders facing financial hardship as a result of the hurricane an opportunity to apply for grants of $500 to $2,000. The money does not have to be repaid. Other special assistance for cardholders includes lower rates, fee waivers and other help.
The federal government's failure to mobilize and deliver rapid help to Hurricane Katrina's victims was 'a shameful display of corrupted values,' according to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. 'We've got to ask the cutting questions,' Sweeney says in a column on the AFL-CIO's website.
'Why did the Bush administration refuse to fund repairs for those levees? Why did it take five days to deliver some hope to New Orleans? Why was a president who says America can afford to give the rich permanent tax cuts unable to give the poor of New Orleans a way out before the corpses began piling up?' Hearings by the U.S. House of Representatives on the federal government's failure to respond were scheduled to begin Sept. 7 but have been canceled by Republican lawmakers.
Donate to the Union Community Fund's Hurricane Relief Fund: http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/Npai2_61mPtN/
or send checks to:
Union Community Fund Hurricane Relief Fund, P.O. Box 27306, Washington, D.C. 20038-7306.
