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Member minute
Lee Bedore
Lee Bedore, 57, is a member of UAW Local 838, which represents approximately 3,200 workers at John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa. He retired in January after working for 37 years in the assembly division, but he’s still a trainer with the local’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). Assisting Black Hawk County Emergency Management in Waterloo, CERT members respond to community emergency needs in the aftermath of public emergencies such as tornadoes, floods, fires and medical crises. Bedore may now be a retiree with eight grandchildren, but the rocking chair is still a long way off for him thanks, in part, to his CERT participation. We caught up with him as his retirement began early this year:
When did you become a Local 838 CERT trainer?
I received CERT training in Ottawa, Ill., at UAW Region 4’s Pat Greathouse Education Center two years ago and then trained to be an instructor in August 2009.
What did you learn in the training?
How to take care of myself, my family and my community in emergencies by studying the basics about triage, or prioritizing patients based on the severity of their condition. We also learned how to assess the safety of a building, how to extinguish fires and when to get out of a dangerous situation. We’re using that knowledge now to train members of Local 838 and the community.
Have you had to use that knowledge yet in a real-life emergency?
Thankfully, no. In the past two or three years, we’ve had floods and tornadoes that ripped an area town in half. Our members helped with cleanup, but we didn’t have formal CERT training in place at the time. Now, if something like that happens, we can provide victims CERT-trained help. I hope I never have to use it. But I’m ready.
Why is participation in the CERT program good for UAW members?
Because it gets our members involved in the community and shows that we’re about more than just labor issues. It helps make unions known in the working community. And that matters – because if you’re not union, you don’t have a prayer.
