Iowa Nurses, School Workers Battle Floods for Survival
It wasn’t New Orleans and it wasn’t a force-five hurricane, but the members of SEIU Healthcare Local 199 in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, feel like they’ve survived their own Katrina.
Following one of the severest winters in memory, complete with heavy snows and ice, eastern Iowa’s grounds were saturated going into spring. Then the rains came—heavy rains for more than a month. On June 11th,, the governor designated 50 of the state’s counties as disaster areas.
Local 199’s members are mainly RNs and other healthcare workers in Iowa City and low-income school and Head Start workers in Cedar Rapids, although their homes are often on the farms outside the cities.
President, Cathy Glasson, RN, says that when the flood warnings were issued, the staff members cleared the computers and essential files out of the local’s office and took them to their homes. The next day, the office and many members’ homes were under seven feet of water. In Cedar Rapids alone, over 4,000 homes were lost forever.
The Local and its members survived the flood only because of the solidarity of SEIU Healthcare, its Locals and the SEIU international leadership, Glasson says.
"You can’t really understand what a disaster is until you’ve lived through one. We kissed our office goodbye. It was a total loss. But our concern was for our members. Our first task was to locate our members and find out how they were affected.
"We had a daily staff phone call. So many members had lost phone service, so we couldn’t call them. Our staff went through the worksites to find displaced workers. We put up public service announcements on three television stations and newspaper ads, asking our displaced members to call me.
By the time the floods receded, the local had determined that 40 members had permanently lost their homes. They and their families were taken in by other family members or by sister and brother union members. For some who didn’t lose their homes permanently, it will be a year before they can be made livable again."
Today, those who are not staying with families are in FEMA trailers—shades again of Katrina—or in rental apartments. The local has found temporary space and are starting to accumulate desks, furniture, and all the basic equipment lost to the floods.
But even before restoring the offices, the first priority of the local was in providing relief for displaced members. "Most of these are low-income members," Glasson says. "They faced utter devastation and might not have survived without our relief checks."
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Throughout the disaster, SEIU leadership and fellow healthcare locals worked alongside Local 199, fundraising as well as contributing from the union’s treasury. "For us, it was like a miracle," Glasson says. "We got checks from sister Locals all over the country, some for as much as $20,000. Altogether, we received over $65,000.
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"And at our recent meeting of SEIU Healthcare leaders from around the country, we got pledges of an additional $50,000-plus. Their support and solidarity has been absolutely remarkable. Our members could not have made it without their help. It is as simple as that. I don’t know how we’ll ever be able to thank everyone." |
Individuals and locals wanting to help out can make checks out to:
SEIU Healthcare - Local 199 Disaster Relief Fund
415 10th Ave Suite # 3
Coralville, IA 52241
SEIU Locals That Have Contributed to the SEIU Healthcare Iowa - Local 199 Disaster Relief Fund
| Received |
|
| SEIU International |
$25,000 |
| Committee of Interns & Residents |
1,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Florida |
1,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana |
10,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania |
5,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin |
5,000 |
| 100 | |
| Public Employees Federation, NY |
1,000 |
| Wisconsin State Council |
1,500 |
| Illinois State Council |
5,000 |
| Local 517M, Michigan |
500 |
| Local 73, Illinois/Indiana |
500 |
| SEIU Local 500, Maryland |
500 |
| State Employees Association, NH |
500 |
| Local 221, California |
1.000 |
| Local 721, California |
10,000 |
| Pledged |
|
| SEIU Healthcare 1199NW |
2,500 |
| Committee of Interns & Residents |
500 |
| SEIU Healthcare Local 1991, Florida |
1,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare 121RN, California |
10,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare 1199NE |
2,500 |
| 1199SEIU UHE |
20,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Local 775 NW |
5,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare Michigan |
5,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare ULTCW |
5,000 |
| SEIU Healthcare WVA/OH/KY |
2,500 |