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Keep Those Donations Coming, AFSCME Members Need Your Help

Photo credit: U.S. Navy
Keep Those Donations Coming, AFSCME Members Need Your Help
By Raju Chebium ·
Tags: Priorities

AFSCME members are stepping up to help their sisters and brothers affected by Harvey in Texas. Thank you. And please keep the donations coming.

Since Pres. Lee Saunders and Sec.-Treas. Elissa McBride sent out an email Monday afternoon seeking donations for the AFSCME Fallen Heroes Fund, 420 members have donated a total of over $17,000.

This outpouring of support, although impressive, will not be enough.

The toll on AFSCME members in southeastern Texas and Louisiana won’t become clear until the authorities finish assessing the storm’s impact after Harvey dissipates. The coming weeks and months will be hard for many AFSCME members and they will need their union’s support to help them through this crisis. That’s why it’s important for more of us to contribute to the Fallen Heroes Fund.

AFSCME represents about 8,500 people in the storm’s path including thousands of Houston municipal workers at HOPE (Houston Organization of Public Employees) AFSCME Local 123, Harris County hospital employees at AFSCME Local 1550 and AFSCME Texas Correctional employees, TOC 7.

Help AFSCME Members in Houston

AFSCME sisters and brothers caught in Hurricane Harvey’s crosshairs need your help. Click here to make donations to the AFSCME Fallen Heroes Fund, to help AFSCME members get back on their feet.

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This was no ordinary storm. Harvey – which came ashore Friday as a hurricane, then weakened into a tropical storm – unleashed a record 49.2 inches of rain on the greater Houston region before spinning off toward Louisiana. By mid-Tuesday, authorities had attributed at least 15 deaths to the storm, which may be the worst natural disaster in Texas history.  

AFSCME members remain on the front lines, doing what they do best – helping their communities deal with the effects of Harvey. Working around the clock, they’re helping people and saving lives.

Consider these examples:

  • Animal Care Technician and HOPE member Mariana Castillo has been caring for pets since early Monday at BARC, an animal shelter operated by the City of Houston. She has been working around the clock to make sure the animals are safe, fed and dry at the facility and the city’s convention center.
  • Over the weekend, members of AFSCME Texas Corrections evacuated about 4,500 prisoners from three prisons as the Brazos River began to flood.
  • Harris County hospital workers, many of whom are members of Local 1550, have put their commitment to patients and their jobs ahead of their own needs. They have been unable to leave work to check on their own homes.
  • HOPE member Cory Marshall used a dump truck to rescue a pregnant woman, who later gave birth.
  • HOPE members are working with first responders to rescue people and deliver clean water.
  • And AFSCME emergency medical services (EMS) members from California came to Texas to help. 

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