by James Parks, Oct 1, 2006

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast a year ago, some of the first people on the scene to help the victims were members of the AFL-CIO Community Services Network. Within days, they had worked with unions and the Red Cross to set up worker centers that provided advice, counseling and other services to union members affected by the destruction.

The Community Services staff also stepped into the breach left by the Bush administration’s crony-run Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and helped develop the new Action in the Aftermath: An AFL-CIO Disaster Preparedness and Response Manual for use by unions and local groups in case of another disaster. (Download the entire manual at the AFL-CIO’s Cool Tools website.)

Community Services is called “one of the best-kept secrets of the union movement, but it has touched lives across the country. In hundreds of cities and states, members of the network, which is made up of central labor council and state federation staff who work with local unions, as well as United Way and Red Cross chapters, provide help when needed. The national AFL-CIO provides support, materials and training for the network and maintains contact with the national United Way, says Community Services Coordinator Chris Marston.

A 1956 AFL-CIO Executive Council statement laid out the principles for the AFL-CIO Community Services program, including:

• The union member is first and foremost a member of the community.
• Prevention of social problems is preferable to the best treatment of social ills.

Fred Mason, president of the Maryland State and D.C. AFL-CIO, says:

The Community Services Network is one of the union movement’s best-kept secrets. Every day dedicated and very compassionate people do what unions were created to do—help others gain a better life. When people see union members helping people in their community, then unions take on a persona different from what the media often portrays. People see that we are working folk like them who care about the place where we live and because we are organized we can do something about our problems.

The children who live at Holy Family Institute outside Pittsburgh know how special the network can be. Last August, the Pittsburgh Central Labor Council’s Community Services sponsored a daylong meeting at the institute, which houses children who are victims of abuse. Forty-five union members spent the day with the children. Here’s how the Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper described the day:

The men played football and basketball with the boys, while many of the women took the opportunity to befriend the girls and converse with them.

David DiMichele, spiritual director at the institute, said the union workers conveyed sincerity and compassion to the young people. “There was a bond that I’d never seen before with adults,” he said. “There was a tremendous connection.”

DiMichele noted the importance of having the children see that not all adults are bad and that even three to four hours of interaction can make a difference.

The following evening, a banquet was held to honor people who have attended Community Service Network classes. As part of the program, the union members presented DiMichele with Giant Eagle (supermarket) gift certificates for the children, and with a big-screen TV and DVD player.

Other examples of Community Services projects include:

• Members of the Community Services Committee, which is comprised of local union members and representatives from United Way, delivered new backpacks filled with school supplies to more than 200 kindergarten and first-grade students in the Rochester (N.Y.) City School District. The new bags were filled with pencils, crayons, paper, note cards, coloring books, colored pencils, erasers, glue sticks, hand sanitizer and toothbrushes and toothpaste. The students live an area where many students are at greater risk for not having the supplies they need to start the school year off right, because their families may not be able to afford them.
• In Kenosha, Wis., union members every year donate hats, coats and mittens to school children whose families cannot afford to buy winter clothes.
• In many cities, Community Services workers match up workers and their families with job counseling and referrals to drug treatment programs.

Marston, who has been working in Community Services for nearly 30 years, says he wouldn’t do anything else:

I believe the labor movement is a humanitarian movement and that when we help working folks in times of need—and help make their communities more humane places to live—we build real power for workers. When we help each other, we build loyalty, commitment and solidarity in our unions.

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