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Region 8 Locals Continue Their Efforts To Support Hurricane Katrina Victims

Along the Gulf Coast cleanup efforts continue in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many UAW Region 8 members and facilities have been affected by the storm, through damage to their homes or place of employment.

While some of our members have been victims of the storms, others have stepped up to provide relief. Many local unions have raised money for donation to those left ravaged in the wake of the storms, and others have rolled up their sleeves and joined in the clean up efforts.

Local 2190 in Laurel, Mississippi and Local 2402 in Brandon, Mississippi each had members heavily affected by the storm. Each location received assistance from other local unions and the locals themselves worked in their communities to help those in need.

Local 2402 members worked out of the AFL-CIO command center in Pearl, Mississippi.
Local 2402 Financial Secretary, Gustina Hamilton coordinated the volunteers. They received a number of 53ft. semi trailers of donated supplies from New York. The group has been busy unloading, sorting and reloading the supplies on smaller trailers destined for three different relief centers along the gulf coast.

UAW Region 8 donated several thousand shirts and hats from our collection of shirts and caps. These were distributed to hurricane victims along the Mississippi and Alabama coast lines.

“To Director Casteel we say thank you for the trailer load of shirts and hats we received,” states Local 2402 President Sam Anselm. “They were unloaded, sorted and sent to the coast for distribution. You can be proud of our UAW members volunteering, as we make up the overwhelming majority of the work force.

As of this date, the following is an up-date and a little history of our Local Union’s efforts to help ease the burden suffered by our AFL-CIO Union Brothers and Sisters as a result of Hurricane Katrina in the state of Mississippi.

In the weeks following the disaster the AFL/CIO International Union put a plan in effect, setting up Relief Centers in the areas most affected to assist Union Members displaced from the Gulf Coast who lost their homes/jobs etc. The UA Gulf States Regional Training Center located at 3151 A Greenfield Road, Pearl Ms. was designated as such; computers were purchased and phones installed to help the evacuees locate families and maintain contact with their employers etc.

The International Union of the UA Plumbers Pipefitters and Steamfitters has allowed our Local Union to meet at the center for our monthly membership meetings for well over a year at no cost to the Local. At our September 18, 2005 meeting we discussed and voted to donate $500.00 dollars towards this effort and solicited volunteers from our membership to help any way we could. This information was forwarded to Robert Shaffer, President, Mississippi State AFL-CIO and on Monday morning (September 19, 2005) he called and took up our offer to help, asking for volunteers to help un-load a trailer of relief supplies destined for the Gulf Coast,

Here is a breakdown of our activities of that week;

Monday, September 19, 2005;
I activated our worker to worker phone network and put the call out for help, within an hour our members began showing up with a “READY TO GET-ER-DONE ATTITUDE” The 53 foot semi trailer was packed from the floor to the ceiling, front to back with food, water, baby needs, clothing, toiletries, pet food, etc. After assessing the situation, our membership took charge of the operation and we had the trailer unloaded, sorted out into 3 different staging areas within the facility awaiting the smaller delivery trailers to arrive to load and ship to the coast drop-off centers. Two trailers were loaded that afternoon and headed south shortly thereafter.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005;
A lot of our second shift members took off early Monday night anticipating the early start on Tuesday morning. The third trailer was on hand now and the loading process began. As this trailer was being loaded Rick England of the UAW Organizing Staff and Chris Kelly of Local 2276 pulled in with UAW Region 8’s Director Gary Casteel’s trailer of donated shirts and hats from Lebanon, Tn. They were off loaded and sorted with the other supplies; some put on the # 3 trailer and off to the coast. The other two trailers then pulled in, were reloaded and back on the road.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
With-out any trailers to load and travel south bound was being discouraged because of Hurricane Rita approaching we spent the day re-boxing the supplies and organizing what we still had on hand. The drop off centers on the coast contacted the command center and asked to suspend shipping any more clothing as they did not have room to store them inside. We then contacted several local churches in the area who were housing evacuees and delivered several pick up loads of clothing for their use.

Thursday, September 22, 2005
We received another 53 foot semi trailer of supplies from the northeast region in the afternoon and the now fine tuned sorting operation was repeated.

Friday, September 23, 2005
Our travel to the coast was completely cut off, so we loaded our last trailer on hand with clothing and delivered it to a church/community relief site in Waynesboro, Ms.

Monday, September 26, 2005
We loaded the only trailer on hand in the morning, and they were on their way by noon to the Gulfshores, Ms. Drop off center.

In addition to our Five hundred dollar cash donation, UAW LOCAL 2402 has donated more than 400 hours of volunteer sweat and labor to this effort as of this date.

The following is a list of the volunteers from Local 2402:

President; Sam Anselm and Wife Judy
Chairman; Phillip Legrone
Vice President; Gloria Johnson
Financial Secretary; Gustina Hamilton
Sergeant-at Arms; Tim Fridmanski
Benefits representative and Alternate; Cheryl Weldon and Derrick Perry
Health and Safety representative and Alternate; Lewis Fields and Barry Hawkins
Civil Rights Committee Chair; Carol Wood and Husband, Thomas Wood
2nd Shift Alternate Committeeman; Doug Williams
Dedicated Members; Edna Cloman, Freddie Foster, Adrene Hogue, Joyce Butler, Keith Gibson, and Tracy Daniels.

AFL-CIO Command Center Staff
Josh Cazares; AFL-CIO Unitedway of America Worker center coordinator
Dorris Powe; Mississippi American Federation of Teachers, Jackson, Ms
Hugo Hernandes; AFL-CIO Organizer
Johnny Frilous; United Steel Workers, Local 447, Houma, La.
Gustina Hamilton; UAW Local 2402, Brandon, Ms.
Shirley Cole; AFL-CIO
Elmo Garner; UAW Mississippi Retired Workers Council

Local Business contributions, Special thanks to:
Bill Barrett of ASAP Printing 2801 LaFair Dr., Flowood, Ms.
Donated all of the boxes we needed and use of a pallet jack for as long as we need it.

“We really appreciate the efforts the membership have placed into reaching out to the victims is these hurricanes,” adds UAW Region 8 Assistant Director Donny Bevis. “Building our unions and protecting our communities are what we are all about. Labor has always been there to help anytime there was a need and our assistance is needed now more than ever. Region 8 is grateful for all the hard work that has been done by these local unions to help those in such desperate need. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the survivors as they try to rebuild their lives.”

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