In the news.

As many as seven Teamsters Union trucks organized by Joint Councils #7 and #42 are scheduled to roll toward Houston tomorrow, September 8, loaded with a wide variety of relief supplies desperately needed by victims of Hurricane Harvey.

 

Among the supplies will be those purchased at a local unionized Costco on behalf of Boxer & Gerson, LLP by Jamie Gerson, wife of the firm’s co-founder Michael Gerson. She went to gather goods soon after receiving a plea sent out by Teamsters officials, then delivered them to a collection point staffed by Teamsters Local 853.

 

The Oakland-based Local 853 represents more than 11,000 Teamsters members in northern California. 

 

The Teamsters convoy will be escorted by the California Highway Patrol, which offered its assistance in ensuring safe passage to the storm-ravaged area that is only in the very beginning stages of its recovery efforts. The Teamsters Union has been collecting supplies from all available sources in its member network, which includes 100,000 working persons spread across 22 local unions in Joint Council #7 and more than 146,000 members in Joint Council #42.

 

Among the more acutely needed items are new clothing (including socks and underwear, diapers (for both babies and adults), baby formula, bottled water, protein bars and drinks, work gloves and boots, pet food, disinfectant wipes, shovels, rakes, tarps, batteries and much more.

 

Items must be delivered to union drop-off sites by the end of today, Thursday, in order to assure departure by Friday. Call Steve Bender for northern California drop-off locations at 707-628-8465, or [email protected].