USW Local 1327 member and District 13 Women of Steel activist Marie “Velma” Perkins, 51, was fatally injured Sept. 18, 2015 in a railway accident at Domtar Paper in Ashdown, Ark. She was the Secretary-Treasurer of her Local, a safety leader and actively involved in Women of Steel. Sister Perkins worked at Domtar for 24 years.
She leaves behind a husband, three children, and two grandchildren, in addition to her parents and other family members.
Sister Perkins will be greatly missed by her family, friends, coworkers, and union brothers and sisters. She loved her family, union and Women of Steel, and many remember her beautiful smile, kind heart, and love of life. Sympathy goes out to her family and everyone whose lives she touched.
Funeral services were scheduled for Sister Perkins on Tuesday, September 22 at 10 am with a fellowship gathering at the union hall afterwards. Her obituary can be found here.
The complete details on the railway accident are not known at this time, but preliminary information is as follows: High top cars beyond the normal size were entering a shed attached to a warehouse and built over the tracks to do switch engine maintenance with a personnel pit below. Unbeknownst to the crew the cars struck the shed structure resulting in Sister Perkins’ death.
Emergency Response Team District 13 Coordinator, Lee Morine, is assisting the family and our members. Steve Sallman from the USW Health, Safety and Environment Department is assisting with the investigation. We are committed to uncovering the root causes and the lessons learned and reporting them out to other paper facilities.