March 11, 2002—In the months since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, union members have donated millions of dollars to help families who lost loved ones and livelihoods in the aftermath of the tragedies.

Working family compassion is evident in the contributions to the Union Community Fund’s Sept. 11th Relief Fund. The Union Community Fund is a national charity, a nonprofit sister of the AFL-CIO, created to meet critical human needs—and change the conditions that create need. More than 2,000 individual union members, as well as local and national unions, contributed nearly $3 million to the Sept. 11th Relief Fund as of late February in response to its appeals for help for the victims of the attack and their families, according to Jim Sessions, the fund’s executive director.

Since October 2001, the Union Community Fund has given $1,938,000 in grants to more than 30 nonprofit union-sponsored and community organizations. These organizations provide a range of services from helping families of the more than 600 union members killed in the attacks to assisting laid-off New York City garment workers to providing food, shelter and financial help for working families who have lost jobs. Some, such as the 5th Avenue Committee in New York City, provide counseling and direct support and comfort to families of victims of the Sept. 11 attack. Fifth Avenue also has an anti-bias hot line and neighborhood watch committees through the Arab Family Support Center.

The Union Community Fund has given grants to specific union relief funds, including the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees New York Assistance Fund and its Education and Support Fund; the SEIU September 11th Relief Fund; New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund; Flight Attendants Disaster Relief Fund; and the Patrolmen’s Beneficial Association of Widows and Children’s Fund. In addition, the community service agencies sponsored by the New York City Central Labor Council and the Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Council received grants for their relief efforts.

Sessions says the Union Community Fund does not distribute money directly to individuals but to service-based community organizations that address immediate and long-term needs.