In early January, 2025, the world watched in horror as fires swept through Southern California, leaving unprecedented devastation and destruction in their wake. Entire neighborhoods were obliterated, with tens of thousands of buildings and homes wiped off the map.
SMART local unions, the International and members across North America responded with an awe-inspiring show of solidarity. At the IA level, General President Michael Coleman sent a letter requesting donations from local unions. SMART-TD bus members assisted in evacuating impacted neighborhoods and supported operators working when the fires broke out. And both TD locals and SM Local 105 immediately leapt into action, even as the fires were still burning.
“Local 105’s full-time officers quickly developed a plan on how to address the needs of our members in the affected burn areas and evacuation zones,” said Local 105 Business Manager/President Steve Hinson. “First, we put together a collection center in the hall and donated all the collected food goods, blankets, pillows, etc. to one of the donation centers in Pasadena. Then we identified our own members in the burn areas and reached out to each member to ask them what their needs may be since the fires broke out. Of the 70 members in the burn zones, there were 12 members that had some displacement from either lost power, missed work from evacuations and/or loss of property. Unfortunately, we had two retirees lose their homes due to the fires.”
Along with coordinating local support efforts, Local 105 worked with SMART Director of Special Projects Louise Medina to secure a Disaster Relief Fund grant to address the immediate needs of members. The financial support ended up being crucial.
“The members’ needs were so wide in range, the full-time officers of the local decided it would be best to give all 12 members a Costco gift card to help them replenish any goods they may have lost due to the power outages in the burn areas,” Hinson explained. “We also decided that for any member that lived in the burn areas, if they lost time from work due to evacuation orders, we would reimburse their lost wages with documentation of lost work hours.”
Hurricane Relief
“Words cannot express how much the financial assistance we received from you was appreciated for the devastation we suffered from Hurricane Milton, and Greg Blose for his immediate action. The damage to our home and loss of our vehicle was a big financial and mental burden for us. With your help, we have been able to get a vehicle and pretty much get our home back to normal. Again, thank you so very much for helping during this difficult time.” — Local 12 retiree testimonial
“We are very grateful to all of you for this support and help for our family as we recover from the damages suffered from the Hurricane Helene flooding. We weren’t expecting this, and we can’t thank you enough.” — Local 5 member testimonial
The local also decided it wasn’t enough to simply react to disaster. At 105’s February union meeting, the members voted to start a local disaster relief fund, allocating an initial $25,000 to the cause. As Hinson pointed out, members in Southern California know there will be fires, floods and earthquakes in the future: “We need to be prepared to act swiftly to make sure our brothers and sisters are taken care of in their time of need.”
Overall, the tragic fires demonstrated what SMART membership is all about: standing together for our union family.
“We received an overwhelming amount of support from SMART locals in both the United States and Canada,” Hinson said. “I would like to thank all our sister locals for their generous donations directly to Local 105 and to the SMART Disaster Relief Fund. I would also like to thank the full-time staff for making all the calls and reaching out to ensure our brothers and sisters are taken care of — and, of course, our members, who donated goods and time to help our communities.”