Unions Step Up Their Services After Layoffs; AFL-CIO Building Used As Temporary Jobless Center
Video production editor Fritz Flad, 34, was taken aback last month when his boss called him into the office and terminated his job. It was the first time Flad had ever been laid off. He got another surprise when District officials directed him to the AFL-CIO union headquarters, two blocks from the White House, to file his claim for unemployment benefits.</br></br>"When they told me to go to the AFL building, I thought that must be a mistake," Flad said in an interview last month, as he filled out the paperwork in a large room normally used as the union officials' lunchroom. Flad said that it was his first contact in his professional life with a union and that previously he had viewed unions with disdain. Now, he is rethinking that attitude, he said.</br></br>"A lot of white-collar jobs are turning into electronic sweatshops," said Flad, who lives in Rockville. "Sooner or later, I think more of them will turn to unions."</br></br>The AFL cafeteria-turned-unemployment center is one example of many around the country where unions have begun offering services to members and to other needy workers who lost their jobs after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 devastated an already troubled hospitality industry. These services help unions as they struggle to maintain links to workers who might otherwise leave the fold.</br></br>In Los Angeles, the County Federation of Labor is dispensing $3 million in aid to unemployed hotel and airport workers to help them keep their health insurance current and pay utility bills.