Yesterday, the USS New York, the Navy’s most modern troop and equipment transport ship, was christened at Northrop Grumman’s Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. What makes the ship unique is the 7.5 tons of steel taken from the wreckage of the World Trade Center destroyed in the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks that was cast into the bow of the ship.

There is something else special about the USS New York, says Ron Ault, president of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department. The hundreds of union members from the unions that make up the New Orleans Metal Trades Council built that ship while they were still dealing with the devastating impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. One of those workers is Boilermakers (IBB) member J.F. Martinez, who every night after work went home to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer he and his wife share.

Ault says the government’s failure to rebuild the Gulf Coast and help rebuild the lives of workers like Martinez has gone on far too long. He sent us these thoughts on the highly skilled union workforce that built the USS New York and steps the Bush administration needs to take to rebuild Gulf Coast economy and the lives shattered by the hurricanes.

Our members built the USS New York. They put their blood, sweat and expertise as highly skilled shipbuilders into building the USS New York. Working in a noisy, dangerous, heavy industrial environment with high humidity and air temperatures often hovering at or near 100 degrees, our members take hundreds of tons of raw materials, miles of piping, valves and machinery, cast, forge, form, bend steel plate into complex shapes and weld the hulls into sleek, highly complex, modern warships with offensive capabilities unheard of just a few years ago.

Our members install and test highly classified, sensitive electronics, advanced weapons and propulsion systems in these 21st century naval warships.

Our Metal Trades Council members have built, overhauled and converted thousands of such advanced Navy ships over the past 100 years and we are justifiably proud of the craftsmanship and quality of these ships as they steam out of our shipyards and take their place in the fleet protecting our nation.

We know they are the finest and most capable such ships in the world, because we build every ship knowing full well that it will be our sons and daughters who sail these ships in harm’s way and fight our nation’s battles.

But there is another untold story hidden in the shadows of the magnificent USS. New York.

Meet Mr. J.F. Martinez, a long term employee of  Northrop Grumman Avondale shipyard who has worked at Avondale Shipyard for 29 years. Mr. Martinez is a shipfitter/welder, and a member of Boilermakers Local Union 1814. Mr. Martinez is a worker who welded the steel from the World Trade Center into the bow of this great warship. Says Martinez:

I am very proud that my skills and hard work helped build this great ship and that the steel I welded from the World Trade Center is part of this warship. I used to live in New Orleans East and after Hurricane Katrina destroyed everything I owned, I wondered if I would ever be able to rebuild my life and continue to build ships. It has been so hard and we aren’t there yet.

In fact, Mr. Martinez’s life is anything but normal. Married with two grown daughters, he is one of the hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast workers who lost everything they owned, yet have struggled to maintain their dignity and rebuild their lives, while living in a FEMA-furnished trailer.

While FEMA is evicting Gulf Coast families out of unsafe Katrina trailers, homeowner insurance is unaffordable and largely unavailable for Gulf Coast residents. The Bush administration could help by requiring private insurers to pool risks and resources to provide homeowners insurance and facilitate rebuilding the residential communities destroyed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Bush administration could do a lot to facilitate the reconstruction of the devastation, but it hasn’t. There has been no federal coordination and streamlining of the various  agencies and programs into a clearinghouse of help for the hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens. Just think about where America is today…We are in a major recession. Foreclosures are at record highs as homeowners join the unemployed and homeless.

The Gulf Coast must be rebuilt. There is no option. The longer we wait, the more it will cost. Rebuilding the Gulf Coast in 2008 is a hundred times a better economic stimulus than the paltry $600 tax rebate program of the Bush administration (that you and I will have to pay for in taxes next year).

Just stop and think of the economic ripple effect across the entire U.S. economy of tens of thousands of new, good-paying construction jobs rebuilding 740,000 homes and 9,000 businesses destroyed by Katrina. America would have a booming economy this year; not a recession, doing the right thing by rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

Our government has the power and the ability to appoint a Gulf Coast Reconstruction Czar at the White House level to cut across all agencies and programs. Such a bold and decisive move would draw wide bipartisan support in Congress and could be accomplished in just days, if we had bold and compassionate national leadership.

Are you ready for a booming economy that works for all? It is up to us to demand more than lip service by our politicians. Let freedom ring!

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