Related Articles

Vacationing IBEW
Members Aid Tsunami Victims

March 2005 IBEW Journal

U.S. unions are mounting relief efforts, donation drives and recovery and rebuilding missions to help victims of the December 26 tsunami that cast death and destruction across nations along the Indian Ocean. Some IBEW members vacationing in Thailand were among those helping the victims.

Tom Cowperwaite, Denver, Colorado Local 68, Pierre St-Cyr of San Mateo, California, Local 617 and Rick Smith of Kelso-Longview, Washington, Local 970 worked together to support relief efforts. They arranged for a large truck from a relief organization to be parked in "Washington Square," a Bangkok area frequented by Westerners, and encouraged others to donate to flood victims.

In two days, the cargo truck was full. A caravan of three vehicles, including a police motorcycle escort to help get through roadblocks, made a 10-hour drive to Phuket, where supplies were distributed. St-Cyr says: "The IBEW humanitarian tradition has a worldwide impact. Side by side, Westerners and Thai nationals showed wonderful cooperation in helping the survivors."

Estimates of lives lost now exceed 150,000. Thousands more could perish from epidemics and starvation if adequate medicines and foodstuffs do not arrive soon.

Some one million people in Indonesia and Sri Lanka may have lost their jobs as a result of the disaster, according to a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Most of the jobless worked in fishing, agriculture, tourism or small, informal businesses, the ILO said.

The AFL-CIO American Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center) has established a Tsunami Relief Fund to which unions and individuals may donate. The Solidarity Center is a nonprofit organization that assists workers around the world who are struggling to build democratic and independent trade unions. Solidarity Center operates offices in India, Thailand and Indonesia, nations heavily battered by the tsunami.

Individuals and locals interested in contributing to the relief fund should make out a check marked "Tsunami Relief," payable to Solidarity Center Education Fund. Send the check to: Tsunami Relief Fund, Solidarity Center, 1925 K Street N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C., 20006-1105, or e-mail www.solidaritycenter.org.

Pete Castelli, a AFL-CIO Solidarity Center representative in Sri Lanka accompanied members of the Public Nurses Union and doctors on a New Years mission to deliver medical supplies and food to flood victims. He says, "For the 16 hours I was in the area, I could smell the scent of death." Castelli reports that the local hospital lost 21 doctors and nurses to the deadly waves. He saw walls of buildings that were "crumbled" and "pieces of peoples lives, clothes, furniture and tables were pushed up the side of trees and buildings."

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said "No words can describe the horror and suffering of the millions of people affected We must be ready to assist our brothers and sisters in Asia who are fighting for their lives and burying their dead."

Hundreds of private relief agencies are receiving record amounts of contributions. The U.S. Agency for International Development has a list of relief agencies on its Web site, www.usaid.gov.

The tsunami struck a region that is home to hundreds of manufacturers who were once based in the U.S., but moved to the Indian Ocean Basin in search of cheap labor and minimal government regulations.

Dan Rodricks, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun, notes that Columbia Sportswear has a plant in Sri Lanka. He says, "I hope Columbia gives it up big for the tsunami victims and I hope they tell us about it. They would not be exploiting disaster by doing so, merely paying their dues and keeping their customers informed." Rodricks continues, "We want more than a war on terrorism and a culture of consumerism to mark the age in which we live. " We should be consumers who, "while accepting the realities of a global economy, support corporations that do the right thing for people and the planet."

St-Cyr remained behind after the tsunami to witness the rebuilding efforts in Thailand. He says, "If we Americans had half the resiliency of the Thais who were hit by the tsunami, our unions would be a lot stronger." A visitor to Asia for the past seven years, St-Cyr, press secretary of Local 617 says: "Three years ago, it was the Bali bombing; two years ago, the SARS epidemic; last year, the Avian Flu; this year the tsunami." Yet, he says, people "with so little are bouncing back.