Help from Home
AFSCME councils, locals and individual members have responded generously to the plight of their sisters and brothers in the three stricken states — raising funds, organizing food drives, sending assistance teams to disaster areas and "adopting" displaced members who have temporarily relocated.
New York City's DC 37 member Joseph Hudak, a paramedic instructor at the fire department's EMS Training Academy, served with a search and rescue team that flew to a military base outside New Orleans. A 17-year veteran member of Local 2507, the Uniformed EMTs and Paramedics, Hudak and his team patrolled the flooded streets of New Orleans, guiding their Zodiac boats to the roofs of submerged buildings and picking up about 50 survivors. His co-workers in New York City also did their part: Local 436 public health nurses helped traumatized survivors who arrived at a welcoming center for evacuees two weeks after the storm.
Tom Payton of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/ AFSCME Local 1000, an airport firefighter at Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Westhampton, N.Y., used the skills he's honed as a radio operator on an HC130 search and rescue plane. During his deployment to the Gulf Coast, his mission included refueling helicopters in mid air and transporting survivors to hospitals. CSEA members in the State Emergency Management Office assisted in response and recovery efforts in both Louisiana and New York. From a control center in New York, for example, they worked the phones and coordinated requests coming from emergency-assistance offices in counties impacted by Katrina.
Eric Waters, a chief steward of the Michigan State Employees Association (MSEA)/AFSCME Local 5, drove a U-Haul truck loaded with 13,000 cases of water, food and clothing to an evacuation center in Mobile, Ala., a week after the storm. A Lansing-based company and neighbors in his hometown of Dundee donated the supplies, and he volunteered to deliver them. Members of MSEA contributed $3,000 to cover meals and fuel expenses for the trip.
MSEA workers at the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, at Fort Custer in Battle Creek, spent the Labor Day weekend preparing the fort to receive hundreds of evacuees — setting out beds, building ramps and installing phone lines. At about the same time, 50 conservation officers from the Department of Natural Resources drove to New Orleans with their boats and spent two weeks in the flooded waters rescuing stranded residents.
When the International launched its "Assist a Family" program, Pennsylvania Council 85 was among the early respondents. At the urging of David Bielski, director of the Northwestern Pennsylvania Public Employees District, the council adopted two members: Oveal Jackson of Local 1991 (see her story, Page 13) and Catherine Duque of Local 872. Both lost their homes in New Orleans. Jackson has relocated to Alexandria, La., while Duque has moved to Houston. The council will be paying for their apartment rentals until they are able to regain financial stability.
At press time, affiliate, council and local contributions — along with individual donations — to AFSCME's Katrina relief fund totaled several hundred thousand dollars.
