WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: Pictured above, United Steelworkers (USW)-represented Registered Nurses employed at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey, along with USW Staff Rep Joe Arico and District 4 Next Gen Coordinator Brian Callow (next to each other on the far right), raise their fists in celebration over the donation of some of the hundreds of reusable hospital gowns purchased with donations raised by a recent USW Next Gen Fundraising Campaign.  (Photo Courtesy of USW District 4)

(ACROSS USW DISTRICT 4) - Facing a “broken U.S. supply chain” and the lack of needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) made right here in the United States for Essential/Front Line Workers, the United Steelworkers’ (USW) Next Generation Committee knew it had to do something.

In early July, the Committee put the word out through the USW’s internal communications thread and on Social Media, hoping to raise money to buy needed PPE for USW-represented Workers employed in Health Care Facilities in high COVID-impacted areas across the district.

They designed and printed a bunch of special edition t-shirts that carried this message on the back: “Of Course I’m Essential - I’m Union” (Pictured Below/USW District 4 Photo - USW Members Theresa Jellison and Trey Wilkins of Corning, New York modeling the fundraising t-shirt –-based Local 1000)

When the dust settled several weeks later, the USW Next Gen Group had raised $28,700 that came from Steelworker Locals and Members from across the United States and Canada - and was subsequently used to purchase 700 reusable gowns to help outfit USW-represented Nurses in Edison, New Jersey and elsewhere, said Brian Callow, USW Local 4-318’s Vice President and Business Agent who also serves as USW District 4 Next Generation’s Co-Coordinator, told WNYLaborToday.com in a telephone interview late last week.

The reusable gowns were distributed to Essential Health Workers over the past two weeks.

“The pandemic ‘has showed us that it’s Union Members who are doing (the essential work),’” Callow said. “We were ‘seeing the problem - first-hand, in New Jersey.  They (the Nurses) ‘are the heroes.’  ‘They are out there working, day after day, and the country wasn’t backing them up because nothing is being made here in the United States.’”

Laura Jones, who serves as Recording Secretary for USW Local 1000 in Corning, New York and is a Next Gen District 4 Co-Coordinator, told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper, during a telephone interview: “Our country ‘was in crisis - it was being shut down and it was a really scary, an unknown time for everyone.’  People were in ‘panic mode and they were angry.’  That’s when ‘we saw people stepping up, calling for safe work environments, both Union and Non-Union - including Non-Union Amazon Workers who walked out for safe working environments.’  ‘We wanted to create some kind of solidarity because we just didn’t know what was going to happen.’’”

The “biggest hurdle,” Jones said, was finding a company here in the U.S. that would make the hospital gowns.

The USW found one - UnionWear in Newark, New Jersey, which “stepped up and made the PPE,” Callow and Jones said.

Led by District Director Del Vitale and Assistant to the Director, David Wasiura, USW District 4 includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and the territory of Puerto Rico – combining to represent some 50,000 Members.

Callow and Jones credited both Vitale and Wasiura for their support in the fundraising effort.

“I am ‘proud of the whole Next Generation network and I am amazed (by what resulted),’” District Director Vitale told WNYLaborToday.com during a weekend telephone interview from New Jersey. 

“This a ‘dark’ time and our (Front Line/Essential Working) Members ‘are doing a great job’ (during the Coronavirus Pandemic).  It was Next Gen that ‘came up with this idea and it was a really good one (for the USW) to support.’  (The USW Next Gen Group) ‘did a great job - but it’s the (USW’s) tradition (of getting involved and giving back),” he said.

Vitale called the Members of the Next Gen Committee across USW District 4 “the future of our Union.”  

“I have ‘great confidence in those who are coming up,’” he said.

As Essential/Front Line Workers continue to do their jobs during this pandemic, Jones said: “We ‘need to remind our employers that (our Members/their Workers) are no longer just a number – we are essential.’  (We need to tell them that) ‘You called it.’  ‘When we’re back at the bargaining, they need to remember that.’”

USW District 4 Director Vitale said it was his “hope” other Unions who learn about what the Union’s Next Gen did for its Front Line/Essential Members “will do more of the same.”

“The USW ‘doesn’t rest on our laurels,’” he said.  “We have ‘strong’ leadership and Membership ‘and we have a number of very good activists, from Next Gen to our Women of Steel (Group).’”