{"id":1497822,"date":"2024-02-13T11:37:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T11:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobin.com\/2024\/02\/us-labor-movement-gaza-cease-fire-action\/"},"modified":"2024-02-13T11:37:30","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T11:37:30","slug":"unions-must-go-beyond-calling-for-a-cease-fire-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/13\/unions-must-go-beyond-calling-for-a-cease-fire-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"Unions Must Go Beyond Calling for a Cease-Fire in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

The growing swell of American unions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza is heartening. But labor will have to take its antiwar commitments further than issuing statements to stop Israel\u2019s wanton slaughter.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters march from Bryant Park to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Headquarters in New York City, led by labor unions calling for a cease-fire on December 21, 2023, in New York, United States. (Selcuk Acar \/ Anadolu via Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

Four months into Israel\u2019s brutal assault on Gaza that has killed over twenty-eight thousand Palestinians, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) \u2014 the US labor federation whose member unions represent 12.5 million workers \u2014 issued a statement on February 8 urging<\/a> a negotiated cease-fire to end the violence.<\/p>\n

The move came after over two hundred<\/a> US unions and labor bodies \u2014 including national unions like the United Electrical Workers (UE), American Postal Workers Union (APWU), United Auto Workers (UAW), International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), National Nurses United (NNU), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Education Association (NEA), Communications Workers of America (CWA), and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) \u2014 had already made cease-fire calls of their own. Many unions, especially at the local level, have also expressed solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement.<\/p>\n

With the backing of the AFL-CIO and the nation\u2019s two largest unions (NEA and SEIU), support for a cease-fire is now the mainstream position of the American labor movement. Given US labor officialdom\u2019s history of providing<\/a> substantial political and material aid to the state of Israel \u2014 along with its frequent partnering<\/a> with US empire (which I examine in my forthcoming boo<\/a>k, <\/a>Blue Collar Empire<\/a><\/em>) \u2014 this is a remarkable development highlighting the power of rank-and-file organizing to push union leaders on critical issues, and signaling the possibility of building a more internationalist<\/a> labor movement.<\/p>\n

Now, the task for rank-and-file members who successfully organized to get their unions to issue cease-fire statements increasingly is to translate that commitment into concrete action to stop what the International Court of Justice considers Israel\u2019s plausible<\/a> acts of genocide. Across the US labor movement, networks of pro-Palestine workers are continuing to organize to get their unions to cut economic ties with Israel, put pressure on political candidates and elected officials, and interrupt the flow of union-made weapons and research to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

Rank-and-File Pressure<\/h2>\n \n

\u201cI thank our UAW members for speaking out and pushing us to come out in support of a cease-fire,\u201d Shawn Fain, the UAW\u2019s president, said<\/a> at a December 14 press conference. \u201cIt was the right thing to do.\u201d Fain and the union\u2019s International Executive Board had voted to endorse a cease-fire two weeks earlier, after several locals and UAW Region 6 and Region 9A had already done so \u2014 efforts that were encouraged by the newly formed national rank-and-file group UAW Labor for Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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US Representative Rashida Tlaib speaks alongside fellow lawmakers, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, and union members and activists at a press conference calling for a cease-fire in Gaza outside of the US Capitol on December 14, 2023, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch \/ Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SEIU\u2019s national leadership similarly called for a cease-fire following months of grassroots member organizing. Last fall, multiple SEIU locals around the country began signing onto a widely circulated labor movement cease-fire petition<\/a>, and the SEIU-affiliated Starbucks Workers United issued a Palestine solidarity message<\/a> on October 20 condemning \u201cthe occupation, displacement, state violence, apartheid, and threats of genocide Palestinians face.\u201d SEIU members with the rank-and-file group Purple Up for Palestine<\/a> began circulating a petition<\/a> urging the union\u2019s leadership to demand an end to US military aid to Israel.<\/p>\n

By mid-December, SEIU\u2019s largest affiliate \u2014 the 450,000-member 1199SEIU \u2014 adopted a cease-fire resolution<\/a>. Finally, on January 22, SEIU president Mary Kay Henry released a statement<\/a> on behalf of the union\u2019s two million members calling for a cease-fire and for \u201ca sustained end to decades of occupation, blockades and lack of freedom endured by the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within the NEA, several locals and statewide affiliates like the Oregon Education Association and Massachusetts Teachers Association endorsed the labor movement cease-fire petition last fall. This apparently prompted the national leadership of the three million\u2013member union to issue a statement<\/a> on November 7 that seemingly urged a cease-fire but deliberately avoided using the word. \u201cRegardless of what you call it, the killing of innocent people must stop,\u201d the NEA statement said.<\/p>\n

Soon after, rank-and-file NEA members with Educators for Palestine<\/a> started a petition<\/a> and sent an open letter<\/a> to the union\u2019s leaders demanding they more clearly support a cease-fire. On December 8, NEA president Becky Pringle tweeted<\/a> that \u201cthe need for a ceasefire in Gaza is growing\u201d and said \u201cthere is no tenable military solution to this crisis.\u201d A spokesperson for the union later confirmed to me that \u201cPresident Pringle\u2019s call for a ceasefire is the position of the NEA.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also took months of rank-and-file pressure for the AFT\u2019s executive council to unanimously pass<\/a> a resolution on January 29 favoring a \u201cnegotiated bilateral cease-fire.\u201d AFT president Randi Weingarten has long been one of the most pro-Israel<\/a> voices<\/a> in the US labor movement. Last fall, as several AFT locals like the Chicago Teachers Union and state affiliates like AFT-Oregon signed onto the labor movement cease-fire petition, and as some of the union\u2019s members<\/a> and locals<\/a> criticized AFT leadership\u2019s pro-Israel positions, Weingarten called<\/a> for a \u201chumanitarian pause\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n

On December 13, a group of rank-and-file AFT members interrupted<\/a> Weingarten at a public event in New York to demand she and the rest of the union\u2019s leadership call for a cease-fire. A few weeks later, Weingarten tweeted<\/a> that she now supported a \u201cbilateral, negotiated ceasefire\u201d \u2014 the same position the union\u2019s executive council would formally adopt at the end of January.<\/p>\n

Although several locals of other unions like UNITE HERE, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have called for a cease-fire, the national leaders of those unions so far have not followed suit. The national leadership of the 1.4 million\u2013member Teamsters has also been silent on the bloodshed in Palestine. In early November, the rank-and-file group Teamsters Mobilize<\/a> (TM) brought a cease-fire resolution<\/a> to the annual convention of the reform organization Teamsters for a Democratic Union. But the measure, which also urged an end to US military aid to Israel, met resistance at the convention and was tabled<\/a>. TM has since turned the resolution into a petition<\/a> for rank-and-file Teamsters and supporters to sign.<\/p>\n

After the AFL-CIO-chartered Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council in Washington state unanimously adopted a cease-fire resolution on October 18, the national AFL-CIO stepped in<\/a> to overrule the measure because it did not align with the federation\u2019s position at the time. Nevertheless, other central labor councils around the country soon passed their own cease-fire resolutions, including the Western Mass Area Labor Federation<\/a>, Austin (Texas) Central Labor Council<\/a>, and San Antonio Central Labor Council<\/a>. The resolutions in Austin and San Antonio led to the Texas AFL-CIO becoming the first state labor federation<\/a> to adopt a cease-fire measure in late January, followed by the national AFL-CIO\u2019s own cease-fire call a little over a week later.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

From Statements to Action<\/h2>\n \n

Many Palestine solidarity activists in the labor movement want their unions to go beyond cease-fire statements. They point to<\/a> the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions<\/a> (BDS) movement, as well as to a call to action<\/a> issued by a coalition of Palestinian trade unions on October 16, which urges organized labor around the world to oppose military aid to Israel and not to manufacture or transport arms for the Israeli war machine. The call has been taken up by unions and union members in countries like Belgium<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, the UK<\/a>, Colombia<\/a>, Italy<\/a>, Australia<\/a>, and Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For US unions like the UAW \u2014 which has thousands of members in weapons factories<\/a> making the bombs, missiles, and aircraft used by Israel, as well in university departments doing research linked to<\/a> the Israeli military \u2014 the Palestinian trade union call to action is particularly relevant. When the UAW\u2019s national leadership came out in support of a cease-fire on December 1, they also voted to establish a \u201cDivestment and Just Transition Working Group.\u201d The stated purpose<\/a> of the working group is to study the UAW\u2019s own economic ties to Israel and explore ways to convert war-related industries to production for peaceful purposes while ensuring a just transition for weapons workers.<\/p>\n

Members of UAW Labor for Palestine say they have started making visits to a Colt factory in Connecticut, which holds a contract<\/a> to supply rifles to the Israeli military, to talk with their fellow union members about Palestine, a cease-fire, and a just transition. They want to see the union\u2019s leadership support such organizing activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf UAW leaders decided to, they could, tomorrow, form a national organizing campaign to educate and mobilize rank-and-file towards the UAW\u2019s own ceasefire and just transition call,\u201d UAW Labor for Palestine members said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThey could hold weapons shop town halls in every region; they could connect their small cadre of volunteer organizers \u2014 like us \u2014 to the people we are so keen to organize with; they could even send some of their staff to help with this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

On January 21, the membership of UAW Local 551, which represents 4,600 autoworkers at Ford\u2019s Chicago Assembly Plant (who were part of last year\u2019s historic stand-up strike<\/a>) endorsed<\/a> the Palestinian trade unions\u2019 call to not cooperate in the production and transportation of arms for Israel. Ten days later, UAW Locals 2865 and 5810, representing around forty-seven thousand academic workers at the University of California, passed a measure<\/a> urging the union\u2019s national leaders to ensure that the envisioned Divestment and Just Transition Working Group \u201chas the needed resources to execute its mission, and that Palestinian, Arab and Muslim workers whose communities are disproportionately affected by U.S.-backed wars are well-represented on the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of UAW Locals 2865 and 5810 at UC Santa Cruz\u2019s Astronomy Department have pledged<\/a> to withhold any labor that supports militarism and to refuse research collaboration with military institutions and arms companies. In December, unionized academic workers from multiple universities formed Researchers Against War (RAW) to expose and cut ties between their research and warfare, and to organize in their labs and departments for more transparency about where the funding for their work comes from and more control over what their labor is used for. RAW, which was formed after a series of discussions by union members first<\/a> convened<\/a> by US Labor Against Racism and War last fall, hosted<\/a> a national teach-in and planning meeting on February 12.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, public sector workers in New York City have begun their own campaign to divest their pension money from Israel. On January 25, rank-and-file members of AFSCME District Council (DC) 37 launched a petition<\/a> calling on the New York City Employees\u2019 Retirement System to divest the $115 million it holds in Israeli securities. The investments include $30 million in bonds that directly fund the Israeli military and its activities. \u201cAs rank-and-file members of DC 37 who contribute to and benefit from the New York City Employees\u2019 Retirement System and care about the lives of working people everywhere, we refuse to support the Israeli government and the corporations that extract profit from the killing of innocent civilians,\u201d the petition states.<\/p>\n

In an election year when President Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates will depend heavily on organized labor for donations and especially get-out-the-vote efforts, rank and filers are also trying to push their unions to exert leverage on the president by getting him to firmly stand against the ongoing massacre in Gaza. NEA members with Educators for Palestine are calling on<\/a> their union\u2019s leaders to withdraw their support for Biden\u2019s reelection campaign until he stops<\/a> \u201csending military funding, equipment, and intelligence to Israel,\u201d marching<\/a> from AFT headquarters to NEA headquarters in Washington, DC on February 10 to assert their demand. Similarly, after the UAW International Executive Board endorsed Biden last month \u2014 a decision that sparked intense division<\/a> within the union \u2014 UAW Labor for Palestine is demanding<\/a> the endorsement be revoked \u201cuntil [Biden] calls for a permanent ceasefire and stops sending weapons to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the rank-and-file organizers in these various unions understand, while statements calling for a cease-fire are significant in themselves, they are ultimately only tools to facilitate further organizing and action. Through its collective power, there is much more the labor movement can do to stop the unfolding genocide in Gaza and to push for peace, freedom, and justice for Palestinians and working people everywhere.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four months into Israel\u2019s brutal assault on Gaza that has killed over twenty-eight thousand Palestinians, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) \u2014 the US labor federation whose member unions represent 12.5 million workers \u2014 issued a statement on February 8 urging a negotiated cease-fire to end the violence. The move [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1096,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1497822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1497823,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1497822\/revisions\/1497823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1497822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1497822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1497822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}