Union Members Help Victims of California Fires

by James Parks, Oct 26, 2007

Throughout Southern California, central labor councils and union locals are mobilizing to make sure their union brothers and sisters affected by the devastating fires receive all the help they need to get back on their feet. At least 18,000 homes have been destroyed and 14 people killed in the 16 blazes that have ravaged 500,000 acres—an area about twice the size of New York City—over the past six days. 

Firefighters at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2881, and members of dozens of other locals of the California Professional Firefighters (CPF/IAFF), along with firefighters from neighboring states, are battling the fires that stretch from Santa Barbara County in the north to San Diego and the Mexican border in the south.

At the same time, hundreds of volunteers from the AFL-CIO Community Services Network are fanning out throughout the affected area and seeking out union members in need of help. Of the more than 18,000 homes destroyed by the fires, 15 are confirmed union households. The San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council estimates as many as 100 union households may be affected by the fires.

Yesterday, volunteers from labor council distributed thousands of fliers at evacuation shelters asking union households to contact their unions or the labor council for information on assistance, including lodging and cash vouchers.

Today, the Labor Council found 24 union families who have been evacuated. Of that number, six know their homes are gone, the others are not sure. The CLC is giving fire victims VISA cards and food vouchers and putting those that want lodging in hotels. If you have been affected by the fires or want to donate supplies or money to help the victims, click here or call the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council at 619-641-0074 or 619-641-0095.  

Because most of the voluntary and official evacuations luckily turned out to be unnecessary, the number of people in the shelters dropped dramatically yesterday in the San Diego area, from 7,000 to 300, as most people returned to unaffected homes.

But not everyone was so lucky. Armando Olivas, AFL-CIO Western regional community services director, reports that members of the San Diego Labor Council found a member of the Food and Commercial Workers sleeping in her car with her infant child in the parking lot of a Red Cross shelter. The volunteers paid for her to stay in a hotel and gave her money to help her get by.

Meanwhile, a study shows that chronic and systematic underfunding of public safety services may have left the San Diego area vulnerable to the devastation. The report by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI), a nonprofit research organization based in San Diego, says the city failed to implement many of the recommendations for increased funding in reports following the 2003 fires by both the city’s own staff and a state commission.

The 2005 study, The Bottom Line, found San Diego’s per capita spending on fire protection is the third-lowest among large California cities, and the number of firefighters per 1,000 residents is the lowest. The city budget in 2005 called for a long-term increase of $478 million in new funding for public safety services—a need that remains unfilled. In fact, only one station and seven firefighters were added to the city budget this year. Earlier this year, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders refused to give firefighters a pay raise while giving all other city employees cost-of-living increases.

CPI President Donald Cohen says: 

Although this is a region with extreme natural fire hazards, anti-tax politics have led to an undersupply of fire stations, equipment and personnel to adequately fight fires.            

San Diego firefighters were beginning to look for jobs elsewhere because of low morale and inadequate resources  They have performed heroically despite repeated failures by the city to invest in public safety. Together with other emergency responders, they have done an outstanding job in responding with new systems, efficient coordination between agencies, orderly evacuations and round-the-clock shifts. 

To read the full report, click here. 

At a press conference yesterday IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said:

Our fire fighters have performed valiantly to save lives and homes and contain the fires. The devastating string of fires that began Sunday has left them battered and bruised. Some are in the hospital with critical injuries, and we are praying for their recovery. Dozens have lost homes in the fire and have been unable to get back to their families.

While the wildfires may be seasonal, the need for a well-trained, year-round, fulltime fire department is evident. We cannot lose sight of the resources needed for local fire fighters and their communities up and down the state. With resources already running thin in many communities, fire fighters were being deployed to fight the wildfires, leaving their own cities and communities at serious risk.

As the fires continue to rage, union members are pitching in to assist wherever they can. Members of the Carpenters have volunteered to help build additions at relief centers. The Bricklayers (BAC) is reaching out to its members to spread the word that members affected by the fires may be eligible for relief through the BAC Disaster Relief Fund.  

Established in 2005 in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the relief fund continues to be a resource for BAC members in need during times of crisis. For more information, please contact: BAC Disaster Relief Fund, Attention: Gerald O’Malley, Executive Vice President, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, 620 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004; phone 202-383-3159. 

If your union is involved in assistance activities, let us know at blognews@aflcio.org.

Union members have always responded when disasters hit. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast, members from dozens of unions gave time, sweat, money, supplies and support to their brothers and sisters in need. The AFL-CIO Community Fund and affiliated unions raised more than $20 million to help Katrina survivors get back on their feet. Several unions established their own relief funds and mobilized members to transport everything from clothes to toiletries to clean water to the survivors.

The AFL-CIO Gulf Coast Revitalization Program committed to $1 billion worth of strategies to produce new housing, fund economic-development projects, create thousands of new jobs, train workers to fill those jobs and guarantee the right of return for all former public housing tenants. 

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