Sometimes solidarity looks like two tons of meat delivered by workers in Santa hats and union T-shirts.
On Dec. 18, volunteers from two dozen Southwest Washington labor groups donated 4,814 pounds of ham to Lower Columbia CAP (Community Action Program), a nonprofit that runs assistance programs for low income families in Cowlitz County. The Longview-Kelso Building and Construction Trades Council has raised money to purchase the hams annually since 2009. It started with a single $500 donation from the council but has grown every year to include contributions from council affiliates and, more recently, other local unions.
The council buys the hams from Cascade Select Market in Castle Rock, where workers are represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555. Then building trades union members deliver the food to CAP’s headquarters in Longview.
“We show up with our trucks and our union colors and Santa hats on,” said Mike Bridges, president of the building trades council.
Each year Bridges tries to one-up the previous year’s donation. This year union members donated $14,877 — besting the 2022 total by roughly $3,500.
“This is the other side (of unionism) where we try to share and give back to our community when we have the ability to,” Bridges said. “Whether it’s for a donation or solidarity purposes, we can do big things together when we organize.”
CAP distributes the hams with other donated canned goods through its service programs, including meals on wheels, the “HELP warehouse,” respite care, and transitional housing. CAP Executive Director Ilona Kerby said it’s hard to calculate exactly how many people benefit from the hams but estimated it’s in the high hundreds. On Dec. 19 at the nonprofit’s monthly HELP warehouse food distribution, almost 550 people picked up boxes of food, many with fresh ham included.
“We don’t get a lot of donations like that,” Kerby said. “People look forward to the ham and being able to make a holiday meal with it.”
The donors
Donors this year were IBEW Local 48, Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 26 and Local 669, Operating Engineers Local 701, Heat and Frost Insulators Local 36, Ironworkers Local 29, Cowlitz Wahkiakum Central Labor Council, Machinists Woodworkers Local Lodge 536, Laborers Local 335, Boilermakers Local 502 and Local 104, Longview Education Association, Sheet Metal Local 66, International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) Local 747c, AFSCME Local 1262, Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 and Local 633, Roofers Local 153, Painters District Council 5, Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, Metal Trades Council of Portland and Vicinity, SEIU Local 925, and Cement Masons Local 528.
