Buffalo area unions filled a tractor trailer with bottled water this weekend for shipment to Flint, Michigan. The donated water was due to arrive Sunday morning. Meanwhile, union officials are blaming the Flint water crisis on government negligence.
A tractor trailer donated by Tops Markets was filled with 22 pallets of water bound for Flint. There was so much water that the unions needed to rent a U-Haul and use a couple of private pick-up trucks to ship it all.
Richard Lipsitz, president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, says he recognizes the affinity between Buffalo and Flint -- two industrial cities with strong union membership. But Lipsitz says there's a bigger picture here.
"It has to do with the role of government and its failure to fulfill its role of providing the people in that community healthy, clean drinking water," Lipsitz says.
The Flint water supply is contaminated with high levels of lead.
Lipsitz accused Michigan officials of putting money above clean water. He says the local unions will continue to monitor what's happening in Flint and could offer additional help in the future.