MARITIME UNIONISTS HELP IN RECOVERY

Five United University Professions (UUP) members from State University of New York Maritime College are on board the college’s training ship anchored near New Orleans, playing key roles to aid the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina.

The five UUPers are part of a 76-person crew on board the Empire State VI, SUNY Maritime’s 17,000-ton, 565-foot training ship, for what’s expected to be a two-month assignment. Their mission: to provide housing and support for ConocoPhillips workers who are repairing the company’s oil refinery in Belle Chasse, La.

“Our mission is about getting everything up and running,” explains Thomas Spina, a UUP member serving as security officer on the ship. Spina said that despite having just returned from a two-month training tour, he didn’t hesitate when asked to serve on the relief mission. “You don’t think about it. This is our job,” he said. It meant leaving behind his family, including his wife, seven-year-old daughter and four-year-old son. “There’s a tremendous amount of sacrifice. But we’ll make do with what we have to do.”

Ann Barry, another UUPer at Maritime who serves as navigator on board, also accepted her sudden deployment without hesitation. “When asked, I jumped at it,” she said, even though it means being away from her family and friends. She has no doubt as to the value of their mission. “We’re helping get one of the biggest refineries in the nation back in service, which will help to lower gas prices,” she explained.

In addition to feeding and housing 350 ConocoPhillips workers, the crew was asked to take in about 300 National Guardsmen who had been stationed at a school in New Orleans.

Spina summed up their job this way. “To make sure all 650 have what they need; to see that order is kept and needs are met.”

The other UUPers serving on the mission are chief engineer Matthew O’Donnell, chief mate Matthew Mahanna and first assistant engineer William McCaney. Andrew McCarthy is joining the crew to replace Spina.
—Donald Feldstein, UUP

AFT OFFICERS MEET WITH LEADERS FROM GULF REGION

AFT president Edward J. McElroy and secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour met with AFT leaders from Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana in September to discuss the immediate and long-term needs of AFT members and affiliates.

The meeting gave the AFT a chance to hear directly from affiliate leaders on their needs so that the national union can be of as much help as possible as quickly as possible, McElroy told the group.

In addition to getting firsthand accounts of how members have been affected by the disaster, the AFT officers also brought in former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials to advise the union on how FEMA makes decisions on recovery and rebuilding. This guidance is critical in helping the union expedite assistance for AFT members who have been displaced or have suffered losses in the disaster, and to ensure that rebuilding the infrastructure in New Orleans and other areas is a top FEMA priority.

The group also focused on the AFT’s federal and state lobbying agenda to ensure that members’ interests are represented in the recovery efforts.

SILENT STALKERS PREY ON CONNECTICUT EMPLOYEES

With a countless number of state employees victimized by silent stalkers at 25 Sigourney Street in Hartford, Connecticut’s Administrative & Residual Employees Union (A&R) has petitioned Gov. Jodi Rell to relocate the building’s more than 1,000 workers. From the union’s perspective, it’s a reasonable request. The stalkers have been identified, yet continue to elude authorities. The dangers workers face are well documented.

The culprits: fungi, bacteria, dust and other allergens largely resulting from structural deficiencies that invited chronic water leaks. The building has a rap sheet dating back to 1995, when state workers started occupying the building—and started getting sick. The record of more than 30 studies, reports and inspections conducted by various authorities, including the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health and the Centers for Disease Control’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), is posted on the state Department of Public Works Web site. “This is the most studied building in the world, according to NIOSH,” says A&R president Mike Winkler, who also is a member of the AFT Public Employees program and policy council.

A&R member Anna Crawford, who works for the Department of Revenue Services, one of the three state government agencies occupying the building, says water leaks have been so pervasive that during severe storms, employees have been told “not to turn their computers on because there’s standing water [on the floor] and they could get shocked.”

Doctors, both private physicians and specialists at the University of Connecticut Health Center, have substantiated the union’s charges that 25 Sigourney Street is a sick building. More than 200 workers are being treated for varying degrees of respiratory ailments and skin irritation, and a handful of members with doctors’ orders have been allowed to work from satellite locations.

“It is shameful what has happened to our members,” says attorney Brian A. Doyle of Ferguson & Doyle, the law firm that has been working with AFT Connecticut and A&R on this issue. “Some workers have become very sick—forced to retire in their 40s and 50s. They have permanent respiratory problems that are very serious.”

The state has spent more than $7 million on piecemeal remediation over the past several years. But because there are no scientific standards for indoor mold and bacteria, state officials refuse to move workers out of the building, says Crawford.

A&R delivered its petition to the governor in August after legislation failed that would have required the state to relocate workers to an alternate work site. The union also is working with state Sen. Edith Prague to secure legislative relief during the coming session.

NEW AIDS PROGRAM LAUNCHED WITH SOUTH AFRICAN UNIONS

The collaborative partnership between the AFT and teacher unions in South Africa took a large step forward in October with the launch of a pilot program to combine peer education, HIV testing and counseling, plus treatment for South African teachers with HIV/AIDS.

As part of the project, 7,500 union school representatives will conduct training to fight the stigma of AIDS, extend prevention education, promote healthy living and encourage HIV testing and
treatment.

Approximately 4,000 teachers died last year of AIDS-related complications, and 12.7 percent are HIV-positive, according to a recent study of South African educators conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council. Four South African teacher unions will participate in the project. Other partners include the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center and the Academy for Educational Development.

“If the epidemic is to be curbed, we have to make sure that people get the information and life skills needed to protect themselves,” said Chicago Teachers Union president and AFT vice president Marilyn Stewart, who represented both the AFT and the AFL-CIO at the October press conference in Soweto announcing the project.