CWA Extends Solidarity, Support to Japanese Workers

300 AFA-CWA United Airlines Flight Attendants Live in Japan

CWA has joined with union leaders around the world in extending solidarity and support to Japanese workers and their families in the wake of the cataclysmic events that have devastated northeastern Japan, leaving millions homeless, and claiming at least 6,000 lives, with thousands more still missing.

In e-mail correspondence with President Tomoyasu Kato of NWJ, Japan's largest telecom union, CWA President Cohen learned that NWJ and Japanese labor federation ITCJ established a disaster center to collect information for union members seeking information on missing family members and friends.

"People who lost their homes have gathered at schools, city buildings, with others who have survived and are thinking about their future," wrote Kato's assistant Fumiko Kimura. "Union officers and staff are fine, and we are trying to check the extent of our members' affected. We are also trying to regain telecommunications as communication is an important lifeline.”

NWJ has worked closely with CWA for many years on telecom issues, and has campaigned for strengthening workers' bargaining and organizing rights in the United States and in other countries.

While the devastation in Japan seems far removed from our shores, some 300 AFA-CWA flight attendants live in Japan.

AFA-CWA members at United have been dispatching urgently needed supplies to members in Japan via collection sites at DCA, ORD, LAX, SFO, SEA and HNL.

CWA members can make donations through the Red Cross, which operates 92 hospitals in Japan, and Doctors Without Borders, which is sending teams of doctors into the hardest hit areas of the country. AFA-CWA has also established a Disaster Relief Fund.