Demonstrating the importance of community service to unions, delegates to the Sixth Quadrennial Convention gave from their hearts to help the family of a former GCIU president.

Delegates, guests, and International organizers and representatives contributed more than $8,250 to help Owen Norton, the two-year-old grandson of former GCIU Pres. James J. Norton. Owen Norton has been diagnosed with spinal muscle atrophy II (ATM), a degenerative disease that involves very high medical costs.

In addition, Los Angeles 388M donated $20,000. New York 1L contributed $10,000, and the Teamsters Newspaper Division contributed $1,000. Delegates approved a motion from the Community Services Committee for the International to match two times the money collected.

Supervising the collection were Wichita 147C Pres. Ricky Brotherton, committee chairman, and Pittsburgh 24M Pres. Louis Blauth, committee secretary.

Blauth read a letter from James J. Norton that explained ATM is related to multiple sclerosis and is one of the deadlier forms of that disease. Owen will never walk, and his arms and hands are also weak, Norton said, adding that Owen's lifespan is expected to be limited by the disease.

The committee also received a request from a retired member whose home in Ft. Myers, Fla., was hard hit by hurricane Charley. The committee recommended a donation of $1,000 to help him replace his roof.

As an introduction to the committee's report, Blauth noted that organized labor has been "in the forefront of community services programs."

The reason for such activity, Blauth said, goes back to the harsh working conditions and employers' greedy exploitation of workers during the late 1800s and early 1900s, that included low wages, 12-hour days, six-day workweeks, child labor, dirty factories and shops, and no benefits.

Blauth noted that it was organized labor that worked hardest–first through collective bargaining and then through legislation–to win the eight-hour day and 40-hour workweek, end child labor, and provide free public education, pensions, holidays, vacations, and Social Security.

The reason unions get involved in community service is "the union member at home and the member at work is the same person," Blauth said.

The committee urged members and locals to work with AFL-CIO central labor bodies "for an all-out, total victory against human need that has no right to exist in the world's richest nation."

Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

Convention Community Services Committee members from left are: Ricky Brotherton, Laura Wanless, Steven Keller, and Louis Blauth.