VIDEO: Teamsters Local 786 Helps Build ‘Hero Home’ in Hillside
Wounded Warrior to Receive House Thanks to Chicago Labor, Veterans
Sergio Lopez of Joliet lost both of his legs to a roadside bomb during a U.S. Army combat mission in Iraq five years ago. Now Teamsters Local 786 and the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs are working to give Lopez something back.
Michael L. Yauger, Local 786 President, joined other labor leaders and local construction companies on March 30, 2011, to break ground on a new home for the wounded warrior and his family in the Chicago suburb of Hillside. The project is expected to include a variety of Teamster companies and veteran workers through the union’s Helmets to Hardhats program.
“This will be known forever to the residents of Hillside as ‘Hero Home,’” said Yauger, the Teamsters’ National Helmets to Hardhats Coordinator. “The brave men and women of our Armed Forces put their lives on the live for our freedom, and the Teamsters will do whatever it takes to ensure they’re taken care of when they return home.”
After the Department of Veterans Affairs selected Lopez to receive the home, Plote Construction reached out to the Teamsters for assistance in pulling the project together. The company cited Local 786’s efforts in 2007 to build a home for Lori Fraher, a Teamster mother who lost her son to military combat, as evidence of the union’s commitment to veterans.
“Under Michael Yauger’s leadership, the Teamsters have helped more than 30,000 returning servicemen and women find good-paying union jobs in the Helmets to Hardhats program,” said John T. Coli, President of Teamsters Joint Council 25. “Time and again, veterans prove themselves to be some of America’s most committed and dependable workers. The Teamsters couldn’t be more proud to continue our efforts to assist them.”
The Lopez family’s new Hillside home—a three-bedroom, 2,600-square-foot brick house—is scheduled for completion on July 4, 2011. Local 786 has already brought other labor unions, including the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters, to the project and expects to involve other union companies over the coming months.
Helmets to Hardhats is the fastest way for U.S. military, reservists and guardsmen to transition from active duty to careers in the construction industry. For more information, visit www.HelmetstoHardhats.org.
Teamsters Local 786 is an affiliate of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents more than 100,000 hardworking men and women throughout Illinois and Indiana.
