On March 12, the “Labor for Flint” convoy checked into a Holiday Inn inside the city of Flint, Michigan. The group of eight union activists from Buffalo was completely surprised to find the Holiday Gateway had running water for all uses. The showers, toilets, faucets, even the swimming pool all functioned in a normal fashion. The restaurant across the street also had clean water and offered it to the customers for consumption during meals.

How could this be? Hadn’t the labor movement of Western New York and Tops Markets collected enough bottled water to fill a Tops trailer, a large U-Haul, and two pick-up trucks? Hadn’t the unions collected an additional $4,000 in cash to go along with the $6,000 for the water to benefit the people of Flint, Michigan whose supply had been poisoned by lead contamination?

The next morning provided the answer to these questions. On March 13, our contingent of activists met the president of the Flint AFL-CIO and the chair of the Flint United Way to distribute the water. To do so, they left the hotel and traveled across town. The hotel was not affected by the contaminated water, but much of the rest of Flint was. 

Flint is a working class city with a majority non-white population. The drop off point for the water was in an African-American neighborhood. When the activists arrived people were just starting to congregate. Within one hour, the crowd was lined up like “cars waiting to enter a car wash on a sunny day,” according to Tony Vacarro, the Teamster #264 business agent who drove the Tops trailer. People brought shopping carts, cars, vans, and wagons to pick up the water. The people were so friendly that, Darrin Ziemba, the Secretary Treasurer of Teamsters Local #264, said, “I wouldn’t have to go to church because I received so many ‘God bless you’ greetings.”

This experience is a perfect example of what 35 years of “trickle down” economics and an unending attack on government has brought. Poisoned water, two societies, including one that caters to the one percent and one that denigrates working people. The result in this case is a devastated community.

Governor Snyder and his government is based on a “business model.” This model has proven to be a disaster for society. It has led to the selling of valuable public responsibilities to the whim of the “free market” for the purpose of maximizing profit for the one percent.

It must stop!

The Labor for Flint contingent to Flint consisted of two Teamsters (Tony Vacarro and Darrin Ziemba), three CWA (John Mudie, President Buffalo CLC, Anne Converso, Jim Lint and Vanessa Quinn), one SEIU (Maurice Brown), one OPEIU (Pete DeJesus) and one painter (Bill Mayer). 

A special thanks for the work of the Buffalo CLC and John Mudie, the Niagara/Orleans CLC and Jim Briggs, the Dunkirk CLC and Doug Stock, the Jamestown CLC and Doug Wilkinson and the Cattaraugus/Allegheny CLC and Anna Geronimo.