Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Mopping Up from Puerto Rico to Texas
OCTOBER 22 - Two of the most brutal weather events ever have hit CWA territory. Hurricane Georges in late September killed more than 370 people in the Caribbean before punishing southern states along the Gulf Coast. Then, less than a month later, record rainfall in southern Texas caused serious flash flooding and at least another 22 deaths. It will be weeks before the damage to property can be totalled - from some areas, you still can't make a phone call.
"We're still in the process of determining who has had losses and where," said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. "We're going to do everything we can to ensure our members recover from these disasters, including making assistance available through CWA's Disaster Relief Fund."
John Kulstad, special assistant to Cohen, has been in contact with disaster relief coordinators in each district, who are still awaiting full reports from locals.
Texas
Lela Foreman, CWA staff person for community services, was the first point of contact at headquarters for Texas locals hardest hit by floods. She reported that CWA Local 6143 in San Antonio had some flooding of their offices and lost a computer and that Local 6137 in Corpus Christi had one town, Victoria, "cut off" and at least one member missing.
As more details became available, those initial reports turned out to be an understatement.
"Some people lost their homes - completely wiped out," said Ralph Cortez, Local 6143 president. "We've had 15 to 20 inches of rain in some parts of the city. They've been recording this for over 100 years, and this is the worst flooding we've ever had."
Cortez said most electrical power had been restored, but there were still at least 10,000 telephones out in San Antonio.
"Southwestern Bell is sending technicians from all over the state to assist," said Cortez, who represents about 800 members employed by Southwestern, SBC, AT&T and Lucent Technologies.
He said overtime was "pretty much unlimited - the company has declared a service emergency for San Antonio and all South Texas," and that some technicians had been working as many as 40 days straight.
Damage to the local's offices in downtown San Antonio is estimated at $10,000 and, to the exterior of the building, $20,000 - the maximum insurance coverage will pay.
Larry Vandeventer, president of CWA Local 6137 in Corpus Christi, said three outlying towns within the local's jurisdiction were sites of some of the worst flooding. "Last reports were that the historic district of Victoria was underwater and that much of the town was isolated from the outside."
One service representative from Victoria was known to be living in a shelter in Cuero, Vandeventer said. And in Cuero, at least 25 percent of homes have been damaged. Conditions in Goliad were similar.
Puerto Rico
About a dozen members of CWA Local 3150 have applied for disaster relief and two have lost their homes completely, said Local President Bernie Pita, who estimated their losses at $50,000.
The local is headquartered in Miami but represents 140 AT&T workers in Puerto Rico - about 40 in San Juan, on the coast, and the rest in the mountains, where AT&T, at Cayey, has an "earth station" complex of satellite dishes for international communications.
"People at Cayey were sleeping at the job location to get the center back up," Pita said.
Nestor Soto, president of the Newspaper Guild of Puerto Rico, published an application for disaster relief in the local's newsletter, hoping it would reach those of his 1,300 members who could not reach him by telephone.
Sharon Seda, a secretary in the Guild office in San Juan, said the hurricane took out part of their office ceiling, that the downstairs filled with water and that wind broke the glass door of a second-floor meeting room.
Power was restored to the Guild office Oct. 19. Seda said, "We were working without light; it was horrible, it was wild, Georges."
Four people were expected to submit relief applications.
"They have wood houses, the hurricane took out the top of the ceiling, they lost clothes, they lost everything they had," Seda said.
The Guild represents workers at the Associated Press, San Juan Star, El Vocero de Puerto Rico, WAPA-TV channel 4 and Telemundo TV channel 2.
Gulf Coast
After whipping through areas of Florida, Georges spun out to sea, then again came ashore along the Gulf Coast.
"The area down here was hit pretty hard," said Dick Scruggs, president of Local 3519 in Gulfport, Miss. "Myself, like most others, lost shingles on my roof. Some of the members had trees fall through their roofs."
"One guy, who lives in the country, had his house surrounded by five feet of water and couldn't get to work."
"We still have about 200 (BellSouth technicians) down here helping out, restoring 150,000 feet of cable," Scruggs said.
He said BellSouth was treating people pretty well, supplying breakfast to techicians for the first couple weeks and still supplying sandwiches and cold drinks. But the overtime's a killer. "It's 13 days on, one off, starting at 7 am, and work as long as you can."
"We're still in the process of determining who has had losses and where," said CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen. "We're going to do everything we can to ensure our members recover from these disasters, including making assistance available through CWA's Disaster Relief Fund."
John Kulstad, special assistant to Cohen, has been in contact with disaster relief coordinators in each district, who are still awaiting full reports from locals.
Texas
Lela Foreman, CWA staff person for community services, was the first point of contact at headquarters for Texas locals hardest hit by floods. She reported that CWA Local 6143 in San Antonio had some flooding of their offices and lost a computer and that Local 6137 in Corpus Christi had one town, Victoria, "cut off" and at least one member missing.
As more details became available, those initial reports turned out to be an understatement.
"Some people lost their homes - completely wiped out," said Ralph Cortez, Local 6143 president. "We've had 15 to 20 inches of rain in some parts of the city. They've been recording this for over 100 years, and this is the worst flooding we've ever had."
Cortez said most electrical power had been restored, but there were still at least 10,000 telephones out in San Antonio.
"Southwestern Bell is sending technicians from all over the state to assist," said Cortez, who represents about 800 members employed by Southwestern, SBC, AT&T and Lucent Technologies.
He said overtime was "pretty much unlimited - the company has declared a service emergency for San Antonio and all South Texas," and that some technicians had been working as many as 40 days straight.
Damage to the local's offices in downtown San Antonio is estimated at $10,000 and, to the exterior of the building, $20,000 - the maximum insurance coverage will pay.
Larry Vandeventer, president of CWA Local 6137 in Corpus Christi, said three outlying towns within the local's jurisdiction were sites of some of the worst flooding. "Last reports were that the historic district of Victoria was underwater and that much of the town was isolated from the outside."
One service representative from Victoria was known to be living in a shelter in Cuero, Vandeventer said. And in Cuero, at least 25 percent of homes have been damaged. Conditions in Goliad were similar.
Puerto Rico
About a dozen members of CWA Local 3150 have applied for disaster relief and two have lost their homes completely, said Local President Bernie Pita, who estimated their losses at $50,000.
The local is headquartered in Miami but represents 140 AT&T workers in Puerto Rico - about 40 in San Juan, on the coast, and the rest in the mountains, where AT&T, at Cayey, has an "earth station" complex of satellite dishes for international communications.
"People at Cayey were sleeping at the job location to get the center back up," Pita said.
Nestor Soto, president of the Newspaper Guild of Puerto Rico, published an application for disaster relief in the local's newsletter, hoping it would reach those of his 1,300 members who could not reach him by telephone.
Sharon Seda, a secretary in the Guild office in San Juan, said the hurricane took out part of their office ceiling, that the downstairs filled with water and that wind broke the glass door of a second-floor meeting room.
Power was restored to the Guild office Oct. 19. Seda said, "We were working without light; it was horrible, it was wild, Georges."
Four people were expected to submit relief applications.
"They have wood houses, the hurricane took out the top of the ceiling, they lost clothes, they lost everything they had," Seda said.
The Guild represents workers at the Associated Press, San Juan Star, El Vocero de Puerto Rico, WAPA-TV channel 4 and Telemundo TV channel 2.
Gulf Coast
After whipping through areas of Florida, Georges spun out to sea, then again came ashore along the Gulf Coast.
"The area down here was hit pretty hard," said Dick Scruggs, president of Local 3519 in Gulfport, Miss. "Myself, like most others, lost shingles on my roof. Some of the members had trees fall through their roofs."
"One guy, who lives in the country, had his house surrounded by five feet of water and couldn't get to work."
"We still have about 200 (BellSouth technicians) down here helping out, restoring 150,000 feet of cable," Scruggs said.
He said BellSouth was treating people pretty well, supplying breakfast to techicians for the first couple weeks and still supplying sandwiches and cold drinks. But the overtime's a killer. "It's 13 days on, one off, starting at 7 am, and work as long as you can."