Left to right: Local 10's Sergeant-at-Arms Henry "Gloveman" Pellom III, Secretary-Treasurer Farless Dailey and Public Relations Committee Member Felipe Riley organized the Local 10 toy drive. Photo by Tom Price.
Local 10 toy drive goes on the air
Longshore Local 10 launched its annual toy drive this year on the dispatch phone and—for the first time—with radio announcements. The result was an increase in toys collected and a happier holiday for needy kids in the Bay Area.
The members wanted to get the word out about the union’s role in the community, so they voted last summer to fund a series of radio messages introducing the ILWU on Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49er football broadcasts. As the holiday season approached, members called-in to live programs and asked the public to bring a new, unwrapped toy to the Local 10 hall.
“All this work comes from our rank and file,” Local 10 Secretary-Treasurer Farless Dailey said. “The slogans in the radio ads came from us. Coach [member Harold Brinkley] said to me in passing: ‘Moving the world and working in the community’ and we used that in an ad.”
The union bought time during the radio broadcasts of San Francisco 49er football games on KNBR AM and 107.7 The Bone FM. Members had always called in to the morning Lamont and Tonelli morning, and the ad buy gave them a featured spot during the Thursday interview with Joe Nedney, the 49er kicker. The DJs began announcing the toy drive on the radio, and further donations poured in.
Oakland Raiders radio covers all the West Coast on KSFO radio, and on other stations covering four Hawaiian Islands, New Mexico and Arizona. Armed Forces Radio also carries Raiders games to 176 countries around the globe. One of the ad spots honored a longshoreman whose son, Kirk, is the starting middle linebacker with the Raiders.
“This week the Raiders salute the ILWU member of the week, Dave Morrison, dedicated father and member of the ILWU Local 10,” the spot read. “ILWU Local 10 are people who move the goods off the ship and into your homes. They are also your neighbors, working hard to give back to the community and to make it clean and green by pushing for green ports. For more info contact ILWU.org.”
ILWU members drove truckloads of toys to the Mary Ann Wright Foundation, a charity based in West Oakland that has fed and clothed poor and homeless men, women, children and the elderly in the Bay Area for more than 25 years. The Local 10 crew also brought along a check for $910 from its 54 mechanics at APL. The full local expects to approve a matching check at its next membership meeting.
The union receives game tickets as part of the ad package and it raffles them off to fund the PR committee. Union members feel a lot of pride in their community work, and that goes on throughout the year.
“Local 10 negotiated with the PMA [the employers] the handing out of vouchers for job applications in West Oakland, where people are exposed to diesel emissions from the terminals,” PR Committee member Felipe Riley said. “Ten percent of our hiring was from West Oakland. Many of our members are involved with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League, churches, parks and gardens. As union members, we buy our houses in the community, shop in the community, send our kids to school—and every one of our members is a PR rep.”
—Tom Price
Santa gives kids bikes at longshore Local 13's hall. Photo by Bill Orton.
So Cal ILWU locals distribute goodies
A three-month season of charitable giving, in which Southern California ILWU organizations helped raise more than $200,000, ended with a flourish just days before Christmas.
The ILWU “Yes We Can” committee, which coordinates the local unions’ humanitarian giving in southern California, wrapped up more than $17,000 in toy giveaways. Overall, the union worked with 22 organizations and handed out more than 3,000 new toys. It started with Yes We Can’s annual holiday party, held at longshore Local 13’s Memorial Hall Dec. 19, where a union volunteer walked each child through rows of toys before families enjoyed holiday cake and cookies. Yes We Can also stepped in for Santa Claus with the children of unionized janitors in Orange County, providing 628 new gifts for SEIU Local 1877 families as well as needy families at the San Pedro Service Center who received 100 new toys courtesy of the ILWU. The Yes We Can crew finished their toy deliveries with a caravan of minivans carrying nearly 700 gifts to the Los Angeles City Firefighters annual “Spark of Love” event held Dec. 22 at Dodger Stadium.
Yes We Can was set up in 1998 by younger dockworkers who saw a need for community action. Each year, the Yes We Can committee collects individual member donations and contributions from the locals, pensioners and Ladies Auxilliary to pay for a Thanksgiving food giveaway and holiday toy drive. Dozens of local businesses also take part.
“Many of the volunteers helping with the toy drive and at Thanksgiving are ILWU IDs and casuals doing their part and showing their appreciation for what the union provides for them, even though they are not yet members,” said Yes We Can co-chair and clerks’ Local 63 member Michael Ponce, who helped form the group with Local 13 member Lisa Tonson.
The holiday toy drive follows on the heels of a Thanksgiving food giveaway in which ILWU members raised more than $50,000 and fed 1,550 needy Harbor Area families. In October, ILWU locals—led by Local 13, Local 63 and foremen’s Local 94—helped raised more than $135,000 for youth programming with the second annual ILWU-PMA fundraising luncheon for the Boys and Girls Club of the Harbor Area.
—Bill Orton
Bikes and other presents await children of North Portland at longshore Local 8 Federal Credit Union. Photo by Mark Dreith.
Toys and food for North Portland community
For the fifth year in a row, ILWU members in the Columbia River area collected gifts for the Caring Community of North Portland’s “Holiday Gift Drive.” This year, the entire ILWU family contributed to this effort. Locals 5 and 28 joined Locals 8, 40, 92, the Ladies Auxiliary 5 and Local 8 Federal Credit Union in making the gift drive a complete success.
The Caring Community of North Portland (CCNP) is a non-profit whose mission is to serve as a unifying force working to support the well-being of children, families and communities in North Portland. The CCNP has no paid staff and an all-volunteer board. This year the Holiday Gift Drive served 225-250 families from the North Portland area. The families were screened for level of need. Families with the highest need got priority.
The CCNP set up a “Holiday Store” where parents picked out one gift per child in their household and, as donations allow, a gift for themselves. The families also received a substantial holiday food box.
The ILWU Portland area locals are the major contributors to the CCNP’s Holiday Gift Drive. This year the locals raised approximately $9,000 that was used to buy bikes, books, toys and clothing. Besides donating gifts to the Holiday Gift Drive, many of the union’s active and retired members volunteered at the event, wrapping gifts and helping the parents pick out the perfect gift for their children.
—Dawn DesBrisay, Local 40
Kids enjoy pizza and presents at Seattle's Christmas for Kids 2006 event. Photo by Curt Cunningham.
Seattle ILWU sponsors Christmas for Kids 2006
The Christmas for Kids Program reached out to 35 families and 124 children in the Seattle area this year. Volunteers from longshore Local 19 and Federated Auxiliary 3 have continued their relationship with Martin Court, which is part of the King County Low Income Housing Institute. The Institute helps homeless families by giving them a place to stay and offering them training programs to help them get back on their feet.
Diane Lee, manager of Martin Court, has been pivotal in helping reach these children and she organized a Christmas party at Martin Court for the families where the presents were passed out.
Each year the members of Local 19 vote to donate $24 per member to the drive. Local 98 donated $1,000, the Seattle Pensioners club donated $500 and the Maple Valley Dental Care donated toothbrushes to the children.
Christmas for Kids program Director and Auxiliary 3 President Leona Cunningham has made a personal commitment to make sure the children’s wishes come true. The application asks the child what he or she would like from Santa, and Leona does her best to ensure that every child receives the gift they want. This requires her to custom shop for each child and wrap every gift. In addition to gifts, the program makes sure that every child receives a new jacket and shoes as well as grocery vouchers so the family has a good holiday meal. Also, throughout the year Leona creates hand-made embroidered quilts for the children. These blankets most often become one of the most cherished gifts.
As we were passing out gifts, one of the mothers who had been living on the streets with her children and had absolutely nothing for her kids came up to Leona crying and said that if it wasn’t for the longshoremen her kids would have nothing.
Seeing the smiles and tears of joy coming from the children and their mothers proves Santa does exist. He exists as all of the selfless people who think of the less fortunate and volunteer their time to help complete strangers have a joyful holiday. Donations for next year’s gifts can be sent to: Christmas for Kids / 3440 E Marginal Way S / Seattle, WA 98134
—Curt Cunningham, Local 19
Local 17 hosts holiday gift basket drive
Warehouse Local 17 once again donated its union hall to the West Sacramento Christmas Basket Project of the Broderick Christian Center as a staging area for its holiday gift drive. Each year the project collects food and gifts for needy families, and Local 17 members volunteer to find their names and addresses and deliver the baskets.
“The project serves 1,500 families, and the hall was just full of food and toys,” Local 17 Dispatcher and BA Everett Burdan said.
Local 17 members also participate in the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the United Way basket distribution program for needy union members.
Union volunteers made up baskets and, on Dec. 21, delivered them to needy people.
—Tom Price
Gene Bilderback, Vice President of Local 14, passes a $500 check to Chris Mitchell of Eureka Fire Fighters' Local 652 for their Christmas Toy Drive. In addition, a $500 holiday gift was made to "Food for People," the local food bank. The funds were donated by Longshore and Clerks' Local 14 and SSA Pacific.
"We're a small local with 18 members, but we wanted to share something with the community during the Christmas Season," said Jim Bilderback, Local 14 Secretary/Dispatcher.
Local 14 also gave $1000 to Richard "Dick" Peters Memorial Scholarship Fund, named in honor of a supercargo killed on the job in 2002. The employer added a $500 donation.
"Local 14 gratefully acknowledges the employer's matching gifts to our community," added Bilderback. Photo courtesy of SSA Pacific.
Longshore Local 7 in Bellingham, Wash. donated $1,000 to the Bellingham Food Bank, according to Secretary-Treasurer Kevin Foster. This follows a long-term tradition of giving by the members to those less fortunate in their community.
Longshore Local 12 in North Bend, Ore. donates $12 per member every month to Community Action. “This has added up to almost $100,000 over the years,” Local 12 President Marvin Caldera said. Community Action, a local helping-hand group, uses some of the money to sponsor a Christmas Toys for Tots program. It also contributes food and utility bill help, and sponsors Head Start programs.
Longshore Local 32 in Everett sent out turkeys to many needy people. The local also made a Christmas donation of $1,400 to local churches, a battered women shelter and housing charities. But giving is not just for Christmas.
“All through the year the local donates to Little League, churches and high school teams,” Local 32 Secretary-Treasurer/BA Ken Hudson said. “We are proud to have donated to the Snohomish County Search and Rescue since 1971. One of our members, Ron Miller, used to be part of that, he passed away and we donate $100 twice a year in his honor.”
Longshore Local 54 in Stockton, Calif. collected bicycles, toys and even origami boxes for local kids. Members took the presents to the Stockton Shelter for the Homeless. The local collected money at the hall to buy bicycles and toys and organized collection points at the Commercial Exchange Club on the port grounds and at Four Seasons Travel.
“It was a pretty good turnout,” Dispatcher Dave Gutierrez said. “To give a kid a smile, it really warms you up and makes us appreciate what we have. There’s a lot of kids whose parents are struggling. If we can make the kid forget about that for a while, I’m all for it and so are our members.”
Longshore Local 4 in Vancouver, Wash., like many others in the ILWU family, supports needy people in their community all year long, with some special efforts during the holidays. The local contributed $250 to the Chronis Restaurant’s homeless holiday dinner. It also supports Longshoremen’s Local 4 Federal Credit Union’s toy drive and adds to the credit union’s donation to Dornbeckers Children’s Hospital. The local gives a lot through its credit union, which usually donates throughout the year, usually between $3,000 and $5,000 a year.
“Our July 5 picnic donation comes out to about $4,000 over the year,” Local 4 President Cager Clabaugh said. “We also give $8,550 to the Seafarers’ Center and $1,500 to Jobs with Justice. We gave $1,000 to the Clark County Skills Center, a vocational school. The local’s total donations come out to about $18,000 a year.”
Tacoma’s Local 23’s Toy Drive had another successful year. The local collected $17,000 cash for toy purchases and equal amount of toys brought in by the membership. The number of organizations the local helped out increased from nine last year to 13 this year, and they ranged from women’s support shelters, Pierce County Labor Council, and foster child organizations to religious community services and military children who attend on-base and off-base schools. Another $12,200 was donated to Tacoma School and Fife School Districts with the “Family Of Need Program.” The local hopes to expand this program further out into Pierce County next year.
—Dragan Butorac, Local 23
