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AFT
TSUNAMI RELIEF FUND ESTABLISHED
Members
and Affiliates Invited to Support Relief Efforts
AFT members
and affiliates are invited to support relief efforts for teachers
and other education and public sector employees in countries around
the Indian Ocean that have been devastated by the recent tsunami
disaster.
As the union
this week extended condolences to teacher and public employee unions
in Indonesia , Sri Lanka , Thailand , India , Malaysia and Burma
, it also has created a tsunami relief fund through the AFT Educational
Foundation to provide direct humanitarian assistance. The union
is working through three organizations-Education International,
Public Services International and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center-to
provide support for union colleagues and their families affected
by the Dec. 26 natural disaster.
Education
International, which includes more than 345 organizations (including
the AFT) representing 29 million education personnel in 165 countries
and territories, estimates that more than 10,000 teachers alone
died or were gravely affected by this natural disaster. The EI regional
office in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia , is consulting with the member
unions in these countries on how best to provide relief and support.
Public Services
International, a global union federation made up of more than 600
trade unions (also including the AFT), represents more than 20 million
workers who deliver public services in 160 countries around the
world. The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center is a nonprofit organization
that assists workers around the world to build democratic and independent
trade unions.
In letters
to EI and PSI affiliates in the region, AFT president Edward J.
McElroy expressed the union's "deepest condolences to and solidarity
with you and your countrymen in the wake of the horrific natural
disaster you are enduring."
Tax-deductible
contributions should be made payable to the AFTEF and sent to the
AFT Educational Foundation, 555 New Jersey Ave. N.W. , Fourth
Floor, Washington , DC 20001 . Please write "tsunami
relief" on the memo portion of the check . [Trish
Gorman, Helen Toth]
January 6,
2005
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