A survivor and her dog
New Orleans teacher believes schools and union will rise again

Fortunately, Ridgley—like many other longtime New Orleans residents—had learned a lesson from Hurricane Betsy 40 years ago. During the terrible flooding that storm brought, people died in their overheated attics because they had no way to get out. Ridgley brought hatchets, a hammer and a saw (standard hurricane emergency equipment for residents today) in case she had to break through the roof. She did, and the equipment helped save her life.

Ridgley admits that she could have avoided the harrowing situation altogether if she had evacuated to her mother’s house near Baton Rouge before the storm. “I decided to stay,” she says. “That was my choice, and it was a bad decision.”

Once on the roof, the three women thought they would be rescued. The Coast Guard, however, was focusing on those in the water who were in even more perilous situations. They ended up spending two days in the attic and on the roof before the water receded enough—down to waist level—for them to get out. A good samaritan in a boat took them, and Galaxy, to higher ground, where Ridgley eventually made it to her mother’s house by bus. Her original plan was to head toward the Superdome, which she later realized would not have been a good place to be. Weeks later, Ridgley says she still has her good days and her bad days. “Thank God for my mother,” she adds.

A 31-year veteran and UTNO executive board member, Ridgley would like to teach a few more years. She wants to see what happens with tentative plans to reopen some schools in the less-damaged parts of New Orleans early next year. Gregory Junior High School, where she taught special education, math and science, was already in need of some repairs before the storm, so she’s quite sure it’s in terrible shape. She suspects that her house will be a total loss.

Ridgley worries about how many New Orleans teachers and students will come back when schools do start reopening. “I’m wondering if people will be satisifed where they are and just stay,” she says. Some will want to continue to teach in Louisiana in order to reach important milestones related to their state pensions and retirement. As for UTNO, Ridgley hopes and believes the union will come back. “It might not be as strong or as large as before, but we will be able to come back.”

Ridgley also is hopeful about her own future. She has enough years of service that if she doesn’t teach again, she’ll be OK in retirement. But she isn’t ready to give up the classroom quite yet. “Things happen for a reason,” she says. “Let’s hope something good comes out of all this.”

A small world after all
School nurse finds help and solace from others

Althea Martin, a school nurse at Mildred Osborne Elementary in New Orleans, was in a thrift store in Arkansas when the far-reaching impact of Hurricane Katrina finally hit her.

“I heard a little voice say ‘Hey, Ms. Martin,’ and I turned to see two of my students. We hugged and I cried for the first time,” she recalls, pausing for a moment to compose herself. With thousands of New Orleans families and workers dispersed all over the country, it seemed providential that she would bump into her own students hundreds of miles away, united by loss and homelessness.

Most days, she is “in somewhat of a daze. It’s just starting to become real,” says Martin, a member of the United Teachers of New Orleans who has been a school nurse for 16 years. 

Before returning to New Orleans in October to find her house still standing but severely damaged, she spent nearly a month in Sherwood, Ark. When warnings about the hurricane first started coming in, Martin had no plans to leave home. The Louisiana native planned to ride out the storm just as she always had. The call for a mandatory evacuation forced the family, including her son, daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild, to flee the city.

“I didn’t take anything with me. I really thought we would be back in a couple of days,” she says.

That was Aug. 28, the day before Katrina made landfall. When Martin learned that New Orleans had been flooded after the storm when the levees broke, she turned to a family friend who helped her find a temporary home in Sherwood, a small town just north of Little Rock. She managed to get in touch with several of her colleagues who found shelter in places like Atlanta and San Antonio, and even contacted Vi Parramore, president of the Jefferson County, Ala., AFT local in Birmingham, who raised several hundred dollars to help Martin and her family.

Staying in a hotel for now, Martin is determined not to leave New Orleans. She has turned down job offers in other states, even though she knows her home and her school have suffered severe damage.

“I don’t want to run away. I’m not a quitter,” she says. Instead, she plans to look for a school nurse position closer to home in  Jefferson Parish. “Any job I take would be temporary because I want to go back to help rebuild my school.”

Maritime unionists help in recovery
Ship serves as base to aid workers

Five United University Professions 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 will join the crew soon to replace Spina.

-—Donald Feldstein, UUP

Labor offers help with rebuilding Gulf Coast communities

The AFL-CIO is mounting a coordinated union effort to respond to the crisis along the Gulf Coast. From influencing federal policies to funneling labor resources to reconstructing devastated communities, the federation’s America Needs a New Direction program calls for a major shift in national priorities. The goal: good jobs, a just economy nationwide and an emphasis on community needs in rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged area.

“We are committed to rebuilding the Gulf Coast and restoring our country as one where everyone has a genuine chance at the American Dream,” says AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. “We can’t do that exploiting workers by suspending prevailing wage standards and affirmative action requirements. Not by awarding no-bid contracts ... Not by cronyism in appointments.” 

The AFL-CIO vows to fight for real support for families through unemployment compensation, quality education, job training and other public services. The plan also calls for state-level campaigns to pass affordable healthcare legislation, raise the minimum wage and pass laws prohibiting employers from interfering in union organizing drives.

“Our top priority in the Gulf Coast and in our nation has to be restoring fair play to Americans in every walk of life, rather than catering to the rich and the big corporations,” says AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Richard Trumka. “The AFL-CIO is committing our resources and the energies of our unions and their members to a campaign to move our country in a new direction, and we’re going to start with making sure we invest in the real priorities in Gulf Coast communities.”

Rebuilding the region’s schools should be one of those priorities, says AFT president Edward J. McElroy, noting that many of these schools, especially those in New Orleans, were abysmal prior to being damaged by the hurricanes. We should be “putting kids in [new] buildings that attest to the fact that this is the most important thing they do,” he says.

Worker centers for hurricane survivors
In early September, the AFL-CIO opened four worker centers, which survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita can use to find job opportunities, gain access to computers and obtain information about benefits provided through their unions’ health plans. Labor families also can connect with their unions, many of which are offering housing, grants and jobs through the centers.

In addition, victims of the hurricanes can call 877/235-2469 toll-free to get assistance from the labor movement. “Union members are among the first to step up and offer help when it is needed—and this situation demands an immediate and massive effort,” Sweeney says. The worker centers are open to all hurricane victims.

PSC offers hand to Dillard faculty

When Gail Bowman, chaplain and faculty member at Dillard University, joined the rest of this historically black institution’s faculty to flee from Hurricane Katrina, she imagined that tall shelves would keep her beloved books safe and dry. But the three feet of water that invaded her home toppled furniture. Hundreds of books—among them a first edition of Roots and a signed copy of A Lesson Before Dying—are soaked, molding and beyond salvage.

Bowman’s story is repeated across campus offices and homes of dozens of Dillard faculty, now scattered across the country, taking temporary positions and boarding with friends or family until they can return to New Orleans. To help them in the aftermath of tremendous loss—their books being just a small part of homes and families torn apart—the Professional Staff Congress/AFT at the City University of New York has pledged financial contributions and plans to establish a long-term relationship with Dillard, one of the hardest hit of the universities in the New Orleans area. PSC already has collected $2,400 to donate to relief agencies.

“Many of our members would like to help in a direct way,” says PSC president Barbara Bowen. Recognizing that rebuilding will last far beyond the first wave of giving, she adds, “We want to be there for the long haul.”

PSC secretary Cecelia McCall, leading the effort to help Dillard, says the school suffered badly when the levee broke and flooded the picturesque campus with more than eight feet of water. With a small endowment and a student population heavily dependent on financial aid, Dillard will experience one of the most difficult recoveries.

CUNY faculty have much in common with Dillard colleagues. Both schools serve similar populations, and CUNY includes historically black Medgar Evers College. “We believe that building up the institutions that serve the African-American and working class community is building an institution for the society,” says Bowen. “A place like Dillard is an institution for change, and we want to support that change.”

There is a tremendous hope in efforts like the PSC’s. “The higher education community has just been outstanding in their outreach and their support,” says Walter Strong, Dillard’s vice president for institutional advancement, who says faculty are heartened by a vision of returning and rebuilding.

Gail Bowman is beginning her recovery by replacing her favorite volumes. Among the first: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes. “It was a way of saying, ‘So what for you,’” she notes and, presumably, a way to move on.

Dillard will reopen this January.