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Pennsylvania Union Members Donate Time, Labor, Money to Help Children
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Union members care about their communities, and one of the biggest ways they show it is through the Community Services Network, which provides services and assistance to those in need. Last week, the Pennsylvania union movement showed its heart when members dedicated a new union-built picnic pavilion at the Auberle Center, a faith-based agency dedicated to helping abused, neglected and troubled children and families.
AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker was on hand to dedicate the pavilion, constructed free-of-charge by members and apprentices of the Carpenters union. Some of the youth at the center helped build the pavilion and two have asked to join the Carpenter’s apprenticeship program, says Joe Delale, community services liaison for the Allegheny County (Pa.) Labor Council.
Holt Baker praised the union members’ generosity:
I am reminded of a quote from Bobby Kennedy who said:
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
It is in small acts that greatness is truly borne, and the work you have done here today reflects that greatness.
The pavilion was dedicated during the center’s annual “Festival of Fun,” which the unions help sponsor each year. This is the third year the unions have helped celebrate the festival. In 2007, the first year the unions joined the Auberle festival, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President William George told the Catholic Reporter newspaper the festival reflects the union movement’s initiative to help communities:
It’s not about PR or anybody putting a feather in their hat. It’s really from the heart.
The festival took place in conjunction with the 50th annual Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Community Services Institute. Through the AFL-CIO Community Services Network, union members help serve our communities and our brothers and sisters struggling from the effects of natural disasters, financial hardship, illness or unemployment. Many AFL-CIO central labor councils include staff members who assist local union members and others in need connect with local sources of help.
Union participants all wore T-shirts, donated by the Laborers, that read in part, “Children and Unions Are Our Future.” Other unions sponsored booths and fun events for the children, including United Steelworkers (USW) Local 3657, Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 29, Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 13500, Carpenters/Millman Local 1160 and Food and Commercial Workers Local 23.
AFSCME District 13 donated backpacks for the children.
The western Pennsylvania union members also delivered 800 pounds of donated food to a local food bank the same day as the festival.
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2 Comments
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I wish more people would do things without worrying about the feather in their cap.
Brothers and Sisters,
In 1980 I joined the American Labor Movement. THIS is an example of ‘building bridges’…of forming alliances with like minded people…of transforming the public’s perception from thinking the Labor Movement is just another ‘special interest’ group…to a vibrant coherent movement designed to affect CHANGE! In 1955 WE comprised 1 of 3 in the workforce. Today, Union members in the private sector are only a tiny 7% of the American workforce. WHY?
I believe the answer is multi-faceted. YET! It cannot be denied that ONE of the reasons is because WE are perceived as a ‘special interest’…in fact PRIMARILY self-interest group. What we need is MORE OF THIS KIND OF REACHING OUT to help others less fortunate than WE are. Nowhere in this country has 1 group done more for the working people of this country than the American Labor Movement. YET! We became the ‘fat cats’, the ‘elite’ of the American working class (those who must labor for their subsistance). In short, WE became complacent in the idea that Unionism for US was good enough. IT IS NOT! As long as there are individuals in this WORLD who are not being served by our ‘Global Economy’…the ‘struggle continues’!