Nevada
Organized Labor Responds to Day of Infamy
Silver State unions mobilize people and resources to aid east coast disaster
relief
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Old Glory's red stripes have always represented the blood of America's patriots. |
Union locals are hereby notified to send additional news to this website for dissemination as it develops.
Tourism drop puts tipped workers in serious jeopardy
IRS temporarily cuts tip tax due to disaster
Las Vegas casinos lay off hundreds
CARSON
VALLEY FIREFIGHTERS BEGIN FUNDRAISING FOR FALLEN NEW YORK BRETHREN
MINDEN, Nev. (Sept. 13) — An idea sparked Wednesday afternoon in Douglas County, Nev., may reach across the U.S. East Fork firefighter Robert Lekumberry said the district and the International Association of Firefighters Union Local 3726 will begin at 8 a.m. today raising money (at local supermarkets) to help firefighters in New York.
"We're trying to determine what the needs for firefighters are," Lekumberry said. "We don't know if they need family relief or what, we just don't know what their need is." As of Wednesday, more than 202 firefighters were unaccounted for after the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Donations may be mailed to:
New York Firefighters Relief Fund
East Fork Firefighter and Paramedic District
P.O. Box 218 Minden, NV 89423
Contributions may also be deposited directly into account number 004 964 150 966 at any Bank of America branch.
Read the full story from the Carson City Nevada Appeal.
FOLLOWUP — Carson Valley firefighters collect $45,000 in one day
CARSON CITY, Nev. (Sept. 14) — By Thursday afternoon, Douglas County firefighters had raised $45,000 to help families of firefighters lost in New York City's terrorist attack.
"We're literally overwhelmed," said Capt. Robert Lekumberry of the East Fork Fire and Paramedics District. "We never dreamed there would be this much of a response. We thought if we could get $10,000 over three days, we would be thrilled. We never dreamed we would have this."
Read the full story from the Carson City Nevada Appeal.
UPDATE — Firefighter fundraising tops $500,000
COMMUNICATIONS WORKERS OF AMERICA GENERAL PRESIDENT LISTS HIS UNION'S FATALITY NUMBERS
From: Morton Bahr, General President Communications Workers of America/AFL-CIO
UPDATE - September 13, 2001, 15:30 EDT
With the help of the management of the New York/New Jersey Port Authority, we have been able to account for all of our members. Unfortunately, four are presumed dead.
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So the apparent final totals are as follows:
[EDITOR'S NOTE -- company names apply to the fallen union members' employers.]
At the Pentagon — 2 (Verizon)
At the World Trade Center
1 (ABC-TV)
1 (NBC-TV)
4 (Port Authority of New York)
1 (Passenger on plane - CWA Local 1365)In addition to the above, one member, an employee of the PortAuthority, is in the hospital with a broken back.
I expect to write to all the locals tomorrow with all the information available and suggest plans to help those families who have lost loved ones, as well as injured members.
We need to keep in mind that between 50,000 and 100,000 people are unemployed today. One of our employers advised a local president that he is wiped out and can't pay our 65 members past wages. So there will be an awful lot for us to do within the CWA family — bearing in mind the families of those heroic firefighters and police officers who lost their lives trying to rescue others.
NORTHERN NEVADA CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL VOTES TO SEND MONEY TO WORKER RELIEF
SPARKS, Nev. (Sept. 12) — The Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO voted Wednesday to send $500 to support national AFL-CIO disaster relief efforts. The organization is the umbrella body for a wide range of construction, manufacturing, service and public employee unions in northwestern and central Nevada. For more information contact: Rich Houts, Secretary-Treasurer (775) 355-9200 or Todd Koch, President (775) 356-8567.
The national AFL-CIO website has devoted all its resources to disaster relief issues. Go to its "what you can do" page.
Building
& Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO
1819
Hymer Avenue * Sparks, NV 89431 * (775) 355-9200
ELECTRICAL
WORKERS SHUTTER RENO OFFICE IN HONOR OF FALLEN MEMBERS
RENO, Nev. (Sept. 13) -- Ron Fairbanks, Business Manager of International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 401/AFL-CIO, has declared
that Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, will be a day of mourning for union members
who fell in the line of duty in the east coast disasters of this week.
Out of respect for the brave men and women who performed electrical work at the World Trade Center, the IBEW 401 union hall at 2713 E. Fourth Street in Reno will be closed on Friday. Business will resume during normal hours on Monday, Sept. 17.
IBEW Local 401 represents workers throughout northern Nevada. For more information, contact Wendy Jones, (775) 329-2566 or (775) 329-7174.
UPDATE (10-17-2001): Local 401 members have pledged to send one-hour's pay or more to New York City relief in care of IBEW Local 3. By Sept. 14, IBEW locals had raised over $800,000.
The following commentary has been all over the Internet. If anyone has the URL of the originating television station, please forward it.
From a Nevada union member: Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his remarks as printed in the Congressional Record.
America:
The Good Neighbor
by Gordon Sinclair
This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris.
I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC-10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the international lines except Russia fly American planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times - and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at.
Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?[Editor's note: Scandinavian countries sent aid to U.S. homeless people in the 1980's despite federal government protests. Some European countries sent weather disaster assistance in the 1990's. Search and rescue teams from Israel, Japan and Europe came to the aid of Oklahoma after the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing. Similar international aid came to San Francisco after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.]
I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around.
They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of those.
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