Union Members Mobilizing to Help Haiti

by James Parks, Jan 14, 2010

The union movement is mobilizing its members to provide assistance and calling for a massive global relief effort. You can help Haitian workers in distress by donating to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. Click here to make a donation and here to learn more about how the center is working to help Haitian workers.    

The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the union movement, also suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti: Partners in Health (click here to donate) and Doctors Without Borders (click here). 

Here are what some unions are doing:

• More than 3,400 registered nurses from across the United States responded in less than one day to the call by National Nurses United (NNU) to provide assistance in Haiti. Now the RNs are issuing an urgent appeal for the public to support these efforts with donations of funds to support travel costs and medical supplies on their upcoming emergency nursing mission. Click here to sign up to volunteer or donate or call 1-800-578-8225.
• The United Steelworkers (USW) announced the union will donate $20,000 from the union’s Humanity Fund to assist with emergency aid in Haiti.
• Screen Actors (SAG) President Ken Howard urged SAG members to “give whatever you can to the charity of your preference in support of the Haitian earthquake relief effort.” Numerous SAG members, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, have pledged their support to victims of the earthquake. Jolie, 34, has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations since 2001.
• The Transport Workers launched a “humanitarian relief effort” to support Haiti and the Haitian people. You can send your donation payable to the TWU Disaster Relief Fund, c/o Transport Workers Union, 1700 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, N.Y. 10019, Attn: John O’Donnell.
• Search-and-rescue teams from Fairfax County, Va., and Los Angeles County, Calif., made up of members of Fire Fighters (IAFF) locals 2068 and 1014, are already in Haiti to aid in the rescue efforts. Other teams are likely to follow.
• Many of the employees who will provide direct assistance to the Haitians in the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are AFGE members.

Meanwhile, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has called for a major international mobilization of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Haiti. The ITUC says union members from the Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbor, are preparing to cross into Haiti to join the emergency assistance effort. Read the ITUC statement here.

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