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Donations, Big Hearts Help Members Recover After Katrina, Rita and Wilma
While CWA members and disaster relief coordinators were still coping with the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita along much of the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Wilma slammed into southern Florida in late October, destroying property and leaving tens of thousands of residents without utilities and clean water.
As the CWA News went to press, union leaders were still trying to assess how Wilma had affected CWA families in the region. Some local offices had closed in advance of the hurricane and phone and power outages were making communication difficult.
Most of CWA's Katrina victims who were displaced from their homes and jobs were back at work by the second week after the storm, assigned to cities that weren't impacted, said Booker Lester, who coordinates disaster relief as administrative assistant to District 3 Vice President Noah Savant.
"Now they are migrating back closer to home," Lester said, explaining, for instance, that call center workers who first worked in Birmingham after the storm are now in Baton Rouge.
Construction workers and others in the devastated region who don't have union contracts have been especially hard hit by the storms, seeing their wages slashed when President Bush suspended a federal wage law for contractors making millions in profit doing post-hurricane work. Known as the Davis-Bacon Act, the law ordinarily requires contractors to pay the prevailing wage for a federal project.
After weeks of well-publicized outrage from unions, lawmakers of both parties and TV commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Bush reinstated the law Oct. 26, realizing that Congressional action to force his hand was inevitable.
"President Bush finally realized that his Gulf Coast wage cut was a bad idea that hurt the workers and their families," Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said. "But let me be clear - the president is backing down only because he had no other choice."
Members Reach Out
More than 825 CWA members from New Orleans and other areas hit by Katrina had received aid from the union's Disaster Relief Fund as of late October, and applications for help were being processed for victims of Rita.
Delegates to the CWA convention designated up to $4 million from the fund for hurricane relief. Members and locals nationwide have donated $150,000 to the fund in the last two months, including a $20,000 gift from New York City Local 1032.
"After September 11, 2001, our local learned first hand the value of the CWA Disaster Relief Fund," Local 1032 President Jim Marketti wrote in a note with the $20,000 check. "We had three members dead and several hundred displaced. The fund made a big difference in the ability of members or their families to heal and get on with their lives."
The fund helps victims of natural disasters begin to get back on their feet. One hundred percent of money donated goes directly to victims as CWA employees coordinate the process as part of their job duties. To learn more, donate or apply for funds, go to ga.cwa-union.org/katrina.
Lester said many members who have received aid have sent thank-you letters to the union and District 3, which operates an additional relief fund of its own.
In addition to donations, CWA members and retirees have worked at shelters, some have opened their homes to victims and others have traveled from other parts of the country to serve the Red Cross.
Lester, whose life has revolved around hurricanes since the end of August, said he's ready for the season to be over. "Like yesterday," he said. "I tell you, like yesterday."
As the CWA News went to press, union leaders were still trying to assess how Wilma had affected CWA families in the region. Some local offices had closed in advance of the hurricane and phone and power outages were making communication difficult.
Most of CWA's Katrina victims who were displaced from their homes and jobs were back at work by the second week after the storm, assigned to cities that weren't impacted, said Booker Lester, who coordinates disaster relief as administrative assistant to District 3 Vice President Noah Savant.
"Now they are migrating back closer to home," Lester said, explaining, for instance, that call center workers who first worked in Birmingham after the storm are now in Baton Rouge.
Construction workers and others in the devastated region who don't have union contracts have been especially hard hit by the storms, seeing their wages slashed when President Bush suspended a federal wage law for contractors making millions in profit doing post-hurricane work. Known as the Davis-Bacon Act, the law ordinarily requires contractors to pay the prevailing wage for a federal project.
After weeks of well-publicized outrage from unions, lawmakers of both parties and TV commentators such as CNN's Lou Dobbs, Bush reinstated the law Oct. 26, realizing that Congressional action to force his hand was inevitable.
"President Bush finally realized that his Gulf Coast wage cut was a bad idea that hurt the workers and their families," Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) said. "But let me be clear - the president is backing down only because he had no other choice."
Members Reach Out
More than 825 CWA members from New Orleans and other areas hit by Katrina had received aid from the union's Disaster Relief Fund as of late October, and applications for help were being processed for victims of Rita.
Delegates to the CWA convention designated up to $4 million from the fund for hurricane relief. Members and locals nationwide have donated $150,000 to the fund in the last two months, including a $20,000 gift from New York City Local 1032.
"After September 11, 2001, our local learned first hand the value of the CWA Disaster Relief Fund," Local 1032 President Jim Marketti wrote in a note with the $20,000 check. "We had three members dead and several hundred displaced. The fund made a big difference in the ability of members or their families to heal and get on with their lives."
The fund helps victims of natural disasters begin to get back on their feet. One hundred percent of money donated goes directly to victims as CWA employees coordinate the process as part of their job duties. To learn more, donate or apply for funds, go to ga.cwa-union.org/katrina.
Lester said many members who have received aid have sent thank-you letters to the union and District 3, which operates an additional relief fund of its own.
In addition to donations, CWA members and retirees have worked at shelters, some have opened their homes to victims and others have traveled from other parts of the country to serve the Red Cross.
Lester, whose life has revolved around hurricanes since the end of August, said he's ready for the season to be over. "Like yesterday," he said. "I tell you, like yesterday."