SEIU RESOLUTION CALLING FOR CEASEFIRE, HUMANITARIAN AID, AND AN END TO THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

Proposed Resolution to the SEIU IU Convention - Resolution #201

SEIU RESOLUTION CALLING FOR CEASEFIRE, HUMANITARIAN AID, AND AN END TO THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE

Proposal to 2024 SEIU International Convention - Submitted by SEIU 1021

WHEREAS, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) represents over 2 million members united by the belief in the dignity and worth of workers and the services they provide — and dedicated to improving the lives of workers and their families and creating a more just and humane society. SEIU members save lives, care for the sick, help seniors and people with disabilities live independently, educate children, and keep our communities clean, safe, and healthy; and

WHEREAS, through our collective voice, we achieve justice, empowerment, and respect in every workplace. It’s our social responsibility to foster inclusive and just conditions for our members and all of those we serve, and we undoubtedly extend that standard across the globe in shared humanity; and

WHEREAS, we take seriously the plea of “Never Again” and honor the lessons of the Holocaust by fighting anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and ethno-nationalism everywhere; and

WHEREAS, we mourn the tragic loss of all Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives lost before and after the attacks of October 7th, including the decades-long military occupation, forced displacement, and oppression endured by Palestinians since 1948; and

WHEREAS, the relentless Israeli military attack on Gaza and the West Bank, in a disproportionate response, has already led to over thirty-eight thousand Palestinian civilian deaths, more than one third of which are children (1); and

WHEREAS, Israel is violating international law by committing human rights violations and war crimes, including collective punishment, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Specifically, these crimes include but are not limited to the following:

● Forcing over two million Palestinians (2) to leave their homes with nowhere safe to flee or find shelter

● Collectively punishing the Palestinian people through the destruction of Gazan civilian infrastructure including hospitals, schools, libraries, places of worship, and agriculture

● Denying water, food, electricity, fuel and medical aid, leading to the indiscriminate death of thousands of Palestinian civilians (3)

● Targeting of journalists, medical workers, and cultural workers

● Transferring Israeli civilians into territory it illegally occupies (the West Bank) via Jewish-only

settlements (4)

● Restricting freedom of movement for Palestinians (5)

● Arbitrary arrests and administrative detention against Palestinian civilians including children; and

WHEREAS, since World War II, Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US foreign military aid, receiving over $150 billion since 1946, and Biden’s proposed $14.3 billion in additional aid for Israel will take funding from the essential jobs we perform and services we provide as public sector employees; and

WHEREAS, Palestinian trade unions call for workers around the world to stand in solidarity to “end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes” and to “pass motions in their trade union to this effect”; 

(1) Over thirty-eight thousand Palestinian civilian deaths, more than one third of which are children

Statistics on the Israeli Genocide in the Gaza Strip (07 October - 23 February 2024), Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 23 Feb. 2024,

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6176/Statistics-on-the-Israeli-attack-on-the-Gaza-Strip-%2807-October ------ 23-February-2024%29.

(2) Forcing over two million Palestinians to leave their homes

Statistics on the Israeli Genocide in the Gaza Strip (07 October - 23 February 2024), Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 23 Feb. 2024,

https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6176/Statistics-on-the-Israeli-attack-on-the-Gaza-Strip-%2807-October---23-February-2024%29.

(3) Indiscriminate death of thousands of Palestinian civilians

"Civilians in Gaza Must Not Be Collectively Punished." United Nations, United Nations, https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15473.doc.htm.

(4)Transferring Israeli civilians into territory it illegally occupies (the West Bank) via Jewish-only settlements "ICC: Palestine is Newest member."

Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/news/2015/04/01/icc-palestine-newest-member.

(5) Restricting freedom of movement for Palestinians

"Israel: 50 Years of Occupation Abuses." Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch, www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, SEIU calls for, and on elected officials to call for:

● An immediate and permanent ceasefire

● The restoration of food, clean water, fuel and electricity to Gaza

● The safe passage of substantial humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people

● The release of all hostages, including Palestinians being held in Israel jails without charge or trial

● Opposing all existing and any future military aid to Israel

● The withdrawal of Israeli forces and settlers illegally occupying Gaza and the West Bank

● An end to the occupation of Palestine and the apartheid policies of the Israeli state allowing for equal

rights and self-determination of all Palestinians; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that, given our history of standing up for the rights of the oppressed and working classes around the world, we encourage members and community to learn about the region, to better understand the historical context, so together we build empathy and compassion to deepen our humanity and strengthen our fight for justice; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, We will defend members’ and staff’s rights to freedom of expression, including support for Palestinian liberation, and protect them from workplace discrimination and retaliation. We advocate for the dignity and safety of members and all people, so that no one is discriminated against because of their identity, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or allyship, in the fight for human rights, equity, and justice; and

FINALLY, BE IT RESOLVED, that we shall call on other national and international unions and labor federations to adopt and disseminate similar resolutions, understanding that our collective struggle for justice as working people is the pathway to peace.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Anti-Semitism

Hostility towards and discrimination against Jewish people.

("Anti-Semitism." Oxford Reference, Oxford Reference, www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095417471.)

Apartheid

The implementation and maintenance of a system of legalized racial segregation in which one racial group is deprived of political and civil rights.

("Wex." Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/apartheid.)

Ceasefire

An agreement that regulates the cessation of all military activity for a given length of time in a given area. It may be declared unilaterally, or it may be negotiated between parties to a conflict.

("The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law." Medecins Sans Frontieres, Medecins Sans Frontieres,

https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/cease-fire/.)

Collective Punishment

The term refers not only to criminal punishment, but also to other types of sanctions, harassment or administrative action taken against a group in retaliation for an act committed by an individual/s who are considered to form part of the group. Such punishment therefore targets persons who bear no responsibility for having committed the conduct in question. Historically used as a deterrence tool by occupying powers to prevent attacks from resistance movements, collective punishments for acts committed by individuals during an armed conflict are prohibited by International Humanitarian Law against prisoners of war or other protected persons.

International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment of prisoners of war or other protected persons for acts committed by individuals during an armed conflict.

The imposition of collective punishment is a war crime.

("How Does Law Protect in War?" International Committee of the Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross,

https://casebook.icrc.org/a_to_z/glossary/collective-punishments.)

Ethnic Cleansing

Rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area. A purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.

The coercive practices used to remove the civilian population can include: murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, severe physical injury to civilians, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, use of civilians as human shields, destruction of property, robbery of personal property, attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and locations with the Red Cross/Red Crescent emblem, among others.

("Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect." United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml.)

Ethno-nationalism

The belief, theory, or doctrine that shared ancestry is the principal element of a cohesive national identity, and that a government should protect and promote the culture, language, and religion of one group, considered the primary or prestigious people of a nation, over other cultures, languages, or religions that may share that space in a multicultural society.

("Ethnonationalism." Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/ethnonationalism.)

Genocide

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

("Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect." United Nations, United Nations, www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml.)

Islamophobia

Is hatred or fear of the Islamic religion and those who practice it.

("Islamophobia." Oxford Reference, Oxford Reference, www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100012452.)

Occupation

Article 42 of the 1907 Hague Regulations (HR) states that a "territory is considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of the hostile army. The occupation extends only to the territory where such authority has been established and can be exercised."

("Occupation and international humanitarian law: questions and answers." International Committee of the Red Cross, International Committee of the Red Cross, 8 Apr. 2004, www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/misc/634kfc.htm.)

Oppression

Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power

("Dictionary." Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oppression.)

Self-Determination

The process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government.

("History and Society." Britannica, Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/self-determination.)

Mental Health Equity & The Labor Movement

From the AFL-CIO: 

Top Cut:
On Wednesday, May 15, the Illinois AFL-CIO is uniting with labor activists from across the country for a webinar to discuss the relationship between mental health equity and the labor movement.

Why It Matters:
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and this webinar will offer thoughtful discussion on how union-negotiated contracts can ensure comprehensive mental health care for workers across industries. Panel members will touch on the importance of mental health equity, the resources that are available for workers and how union member-activists can use these tools to sustain movements for economic justice.

Cyndi Oberle-Dahm of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Reggie Hubbard of Active Peace Yoga will moderate the panel. Participants will include Director of Leadership and Organizational Change Programs at the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations Kasi Perreira (American Federation of Teachers [AFT]); Danielle Cook, firefighter, paramedic and member of the Associated Firefighters of Illinois Resiliency Committee; Paul Goodrich (Ironworkers), a founding member of Sobriety in the Trades; and Lorena Oviedo (AFSCME Council 31), a mental health clinician with the Chicago Department of Public Health.

Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Time: 4–5:15 p.m. CST
Where: Zoom webinar

Union Members at Sesame Workshop Ratify New Contract

From the AFL-CIO:

Top Cut:

On Friday, members of Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) at Sesame Workshop overwhelmingly ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement.

Why It Matters:
The 35-member bargaining unit at Sesame Workshop secured a groundbreaking expansion of the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) jurisdiction over programs made for platforms such as streaming and social media, minimum rates increases, protections against artificial intelligence, better paid parental leave benefits, increased minimum script fees and huge improvements to new media residuals.

“Congratulations to our Sesame Workshop writers, who won groundbreaking protections that will allow them to continue creating children’s media,” said WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. “Make no mistake—these historic gains mark an important step in organizing animation. Writing for children’s media and animation isn’t easier than other forms of screenwriting, and those workers deserve the same protections.”

ON THE RISE: DOCTORS UNIONIZING & ORGANIZING FOR SINGLE PAYER

RSVP today to join our allies at PNHP NY Metro Chapter this coming Tuesday, May 14th at 7:30pm Eastern for their virtual educational forum, On The Rise: Doctors Unionizing & Organizing for Single Payer.

"Physicians and other healthcare professionals are unionizing. What is motivating this phenomenon? How and why do fiercely independent professionals get organized? What are the connections between this increasing interest in unionization and in advocacy for establishing an equitable, single payer healthcare system that prioritizes patients rather than profits? Our May forum will feature frontline physicians who have been leaders in successful unionization efforts, in New York and from around the country, as well as professional labor union organizing staff. We will explore forces driving unionization, and the fight against both the corporate practice of medicine and broader financialization of healthcare."

Forum Cosponsors Include:

Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR-SEIU)
Doctors Council (SEIU)
Union of American Physicians & Dentists (UAPD) AFSCME, AFL-CIO

A Request For Immediate Union Solidarity With Disneyland Workers

Tomorrow I’ll be flying out to California for Magic United’s union election. The Characters and Parades Cast Members at Disneyland have put in so much work already: organizing their fellow Cast Members, getting cards signed, speaking up about the challenges they face at work and preparing for this election.

Magic United will vote on May 15, 16 and 18 – that's Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. This is the final step these Cast Members need to take for Actors’ Equity to be recognized as their official bargaining representative.

I’m so proud of these Cast Members for stepping up to tell their employer that they deserve a better workplace, and I hope you are too. Let’s show Magic United that we’re all standing with them – use our toolkit to show your support for @dlrmagicunited on Instagram!

This is going to be a busy week for Magic United. Keep an eye on Equity's social media and on our vote count webpage on Saturday evenings for live updates from the count. We will be in touch with an update when the election is over.

In solidarity,

Stefanie Frey

National Director of Organizing and Mobilization

 

Books, Films, & Music That You Masy Have Missed (From Matt Witt)

For many years now Matt Witt has been providing short emails about books, films, and music having to do with labor, social conditions and the environment that we may have missed and want to look up. There is something from almost anyone in his lists. Matt lives here in Oregon and I want to recommend subscribing to his email list and supporting his artistic work as well. Here is a sampling from one of his recent emails:

BOOKS

Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen (Dutton). A school psychologist named Dixon and his brother set out to become the first Black Americans to climb Mount Everest. This unusual and profoundly sad novel toggles between their time on the mountain and Dixon’s work and personal life before and after the climb.

Fire in the Canyon by Daniel Gumbiner (Astra). Ben and Ada get by financially on their small family farm in rural California, where he grows wine grapes and she writes novels. But the new reality of climate-fueled fire and smoke that is affecting so many communities threatens the future for them and their grown son.

In The Pines by Grace Elizabeth Hale (Little, Brown). According to legend in the author’s family, her grandfather, who served as sheriff in a rural Mississippi county, stood up to a mob that wanted to lynch a Black man jailed for allegedly raping a white woman. A meticulous historian and skilled writer, Hale uncovered the ugly truth about what actually happened.

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Picador). A very readable history begins in 1917 when the British government announced that it planned to support creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, where Jews constituted 6% of the population. In 1919, a commission established by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson went to the region and reported that the Zionists who supported that plan “looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the present non-Jewish inhabitants of Palestine.” The commission warned Wilson that “if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained.” The book recounts how force has been used since then to steadily expand the territory taken from Palestinian families and deprive them of basic human rights. It also describes how many Palestinians have become increasingly desperate as their situation worsens.

Wall Street’s War on Workers by Les Leopold (Chelsea Green). A respected researcher and educator presents facts to challenge myths commonly asserted by the corporate media and national leaders of the Democratic Party. Working class voters are rebelling primarily because politicians have stood by while big corporations and billionaires have destroyed jobs and communities in ways that are not allowed in some other industrialized countries. Rebuilding a winning political coalition will require challenging corporate power with effective policies, not just rhetoric at election time.

Behind the Startup by Benjamin Shestakofsky (University of California). Problems with tech companies are often attributed to the technologies themselves. But most of the tech industry is dominated by venture capital “investors” who demand rapid growth so they can reap huge gains when a company or their stake is eventually sold. Their profits often come at the expense of workers, customers, and communities, and are a major cause of inequality in America. Especially since venture capitalists often benefit from public funding and investments from pension funds, public officials and regulators should support other models, including nonprofit corporations and cooperatives.

Dignity Not Debt by Chrystin Ondersma (University of California). We are taught that debt and bankruptcy result from personal failings and bad choices. But debt is built into our economic system of inequality and exploitation. Many households must incur debt for medical needs, groceries, utilities, housing, education, transportation, or other basic needs, and then are subject to financial predators. Systemic change is required so people can meet those needs without going into debt.

National Parks, Native Sovereignty edited by Christina Gish Hill, Matthew J. Hill, and Brooke Neely (University of Oklahoma). People who have participated in or studied projects that involved collaboration between the National Park Service and Tribal nations discuss the possibilities and limitations of those experiments.

Journalists and Their Shadows by Patrick Lawrence (Clarity). A veteran journalist critiques the close relationship between the corporate media and those who wield economic and political power, and encourages the public to look to independent journalism for factual information. “We can no longer read…the corporate press to…know what happened,” he writes. Now we read “to know what we are supposed to think happened. Then we go in search of accurate accounts of what happened.”

Ron Carey and the Teamsters by Ken Reiman (Monthly Review). A retired UPS driver has written a tribute to the former head of his local union, the late Ron Carey, who courageously took on the corrupt leadership of the Teamsters in the 1990s. With the support of a longstanding rank-and-file movement called Teamsters for a Democratic Union, Carey became the union’s national president and led the historic UPS strike of 1997. The strike was a groundbreaking challenge to corporations’ shift to low-paying, “throwaway jobs” and helped set the stage for the Occupy movement, the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, organizing at companies like Starbucks, and more recent high-profile national contract campaigns by the Teamsters and the UAW. Under Carey, the union also became a leading grassroots voice urging Democratic politicians like the Clintons not to join the push by big corporations and Republicans for trade agreements like NAFTA that hurt workers in all the affected countries. Had the Democrats listened, perhaps fewer voters in industrial states would eventually have turned to a candidate like Trump. A short afterword to the book by two experienced labor organizers draws a few lessons for today’s union reformers.

FILMS

A Very British Coup. In this three-part series made in 1988, a third-generation steelworker is elected prime minister of England and begins to implement the policies he promised: pro-worker, pro-environment, and anti-imperialist. The real powers that be, including the British economic royalty, military, media, and spy agencies and the U.S. government, mobilize to try to bring him down.

Three Summers. A working class Brazilian woman who serves as property and events manager for a rich family proves to be more resourceful and resilient than her bosses.

La Syndicaliste. Based on the true story of a union leader at a French nuclear power company who became a whistleblower, first her body and then her credibility are attacked in an attempt to cover up corporate and political wrongdoing.

Arc of Justice. A 22-minute documentary tells the story of the first community land trust in the U.S. It was started in 1969 by Black voting rights organizers in southwest Georgia who decided that building a cooperative community on Black-owned land should be the next step in their struggle.

MUSIC

After the Revolution by Carsie Blanton. No singer writes better songs for our time. Blanton sings about hope, love, and friendship as the empire falls and people revolt all over the world.

Some Thoughts On The Labor Movement & The Campus Protests

Student- and youth-led protests supporting a ceasefire in Gaza are sweeping across the United States and the world. In some countries, mass protests supporting a ceasefire and pro-Palestinian demands are being organized by coalitions that are led in part by unions and by popular social movements. This work is being done from many corners of world labor and from many perspectives.

Popular media in the United States often either ignores the protests being held here or so misstates the facts on the ground concerning these protests that media watchers and readers might come away with the mistaken impression that the campus protests are, by their nature and intent, anti-Semitic, violent, and led by people who are not students and who have ulterior motives. I want to encourage readers of this blog to explore counter-narratives concerning the campus protests. You might want to start here and here in order to begin examining counter-narratives concerning the protests. 

I believe that three aspects of these protest movements in the United States are not being sufficiently explored in either our popular or alterntive media and that these points should be of special interest to the labor movement. We should start by acknowledging that most unions in the United States have been strong supporters of Israel since its founding in 1948 and that this support has come with little discussion or debate and that some within labor who have opposed this course have lost their jobs and have found it difficult to find other employment or have faced other forms of censorship. For a broad view on this matter, see this article that appeared in Labor Notes and this article as well.

There is no principle at stake here that says that we cannot or should not take positions on events that are occuring elsewhere in the world and that may not be of immediate concern to the immediate welfare of all union members. Rather, the principle has been that the mainstream labor movement in the U.S. has tended to fall safely in step with U.S. foreign policy goals and has often enlisted in the ideological battle for winning those goals through AIFLD and the ACILS. (There have been notable exception to this principle.) Most union members will not be  familiar with AIFLD and ASCILS and are not aware that their unions are engaged in international affairs.  

In our current moment, on the other hand, we see many unions cautiously breaking with our past and adopting calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some perspective on this change in affairs can be found here, here, and here. The February 8 statement by AFL-CIO condemning "the attacks by Hamas on October 7th" and calling for "a negotiated cease-fire in Gaza—including the immediate ingrelease of all hostages and provision of desperately needed shelter, food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance to Gazans" and reaffirming AFL-CIO "support of a two-state solution for long-term peace and security” marked a historic turning point for labor.

This brings me to the first aspect of our present moment that I want to comment on. The campus protests are indeed initiated and led by students, but these protests are increasingly involving university faculty and staff, and to the extent that unionized faculty and staff are involved these protests become union issues. This is particularly underscored when faculty and staff are attacked by the police and counter-protestors, are threatened with firing, or are fired. See this recent post, this recent post, and this recent post that have appeared on this blog for some idea of what this looks like. My points here are that unions that represent workers who are being victimized have a duty of fair representation in many of these cases, whether the unions involved support a ceasefire or not, and that unions such as the United Auto Workers and the United Electrical Workers (UE) have especially large union locals with members that have been facing repression on campuses. UAW President Shawn Fein has been especially forthright in defense of UAW members who are engaging in protests. This post from the UAW tells a story in its own right.   

 

Mainstream media is not telling the story of the campus protests from a labor or working-class perspective. There are wild cards in play here. The media's emphasis has been on whether or not President Biden's reelection is at risk because of these protests and what is taken to be his "pro-Israel" stance and what is generally perceived as being subtle shifts in that stance. The popular line is that Biden is alienating young voters by not supporting a ceasefire and by supporting Israel but also stands to lose at least some Jewish support for his shifts in policy. The other wild card here, at least for the labor movement, is whether or not union support for a ceasefire and for union members who are victimized for protesting will lead to union growth on campuses or not. The UAW, the UE, and some CWA local unions that are engaging in supporting calls for a ceasefire and for defending their members who are attacked look good to large numbers of young people and to many campus workers right now. This feels a bit like the days of the Occupy movement and the early days of the Black Lives Matter movement in some ways. Both of those movements showed the labor movement that we have lots to learn or relearn and they have helped push us in positive directions.

The primary movements for social change in the late 1960s and early 1970s won limited gains or lost in part because they were easily characterized as being youth movements and then isolated. In our current moment, however, there is an opportunity to build solidarity between young people and campus workers and their unions. Union members, as much as anyone else, need to fully understand the demands being raised in the protests.

Photo from Hussein Malla / AP/ People's World. See this article for an analysis of 

what is at issue in the campus protests. 

Another aspect of the moment that we're in has to do with what Labor has to teach the pro-ceasefire movement and the protesters and activists. We understand the discipline needed in striking and winning while other social movements may not, or these movements may see things differently than we do. Striking is not only about getting your sign, marching in a circle for a few hours, and picking up strike pay. The recent Portland Association of Teachers strike (see here and here) reminds us that strikes are also about forming transformative new relationships, pitching in to help coworkers cover childcare and rent and car payments, and winning public support. Most of go into strikes knowing that we have to define what a victory is and with the patience that gives us the strength to fight for what we didn't win when we return to work. Doing this right takes discipline and experience. We can teach this to others if we stop to take a breath and use our critical thinking skills to analyze what has and has not worked for us in the past.

In line with this, we need to carefully study and adopt/adapt passive resistance and the intricate psychology of confrontational non-violence. Our labor history is full of useful examples of us using non-violent civil disobedence, and it would be hypocritical and wrong-headed for us to criticize others for following our example. Here is a great labor video to help us start understanding this:

One of the many remarkable features of the strike shown in the video above was that the strikers and their families and closest supporters stayed on message despite police brutality, hostile courts and other violence. The company was the primary target and the goal was a strong union contract and the union remained on message throughout the strike. This won strong public support and support from many prominent progressive people who would not have otherwise engaged with coal miners in Appalachia. I know this because I was there. 
 

My last point here builds on something that the labor movement knows and carries in our DNA but that we do not often acknowldge. We know from union organizing that we do not begin an organizing campaign with puttng forward maximum demands. We find core issues that unite most people and we become the living voice of those demands and we win over people who are neutral or sitting on the fence by listening to them and creating safe space with them and including what they want in our demands if that's possible. It's a slow and steady step-by-step process that can suddenly accelerate. In some sense, then, we organize on the basis of loving our co-workers more than we do on hating our bosses.

The movements for a ceasefire and for the liberation of Palestine do their best work when then start with demands for a ceasefire and peace and use those to split their opposition and win over or neutralize some who oppose them. By doing this they put the fence-sitters in the positon of having to choose between what is human and good and what is pro-war and pro-genocide. So long as the movements have been doing that they have been winning against all odds and are building a pro-peace majority before the November elections. 

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO. Other opinions from union members in our region on this subject are welcome and will be appreciated.     

Vermont Has Some Lessons For Oregon

The Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is my favorite among the 50 state labor federations within the AFL-CIO. I'm doing this post because I think that some of what is happening in Vermont is instructive for us here in Oregon Two examples of what we could be working on arte offered below. 

The national AFL-CIO reports the following:

Top Cut:
The Vermont Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act overwhelmingly passed in the Vermont House of Representatives Tuesday by a vote of 115–26 and will now head to the governor’s desk.

Why It Matters:
S. 102—which was backed by the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, along with a coalition of 26 unions and allied organizations—would make it easier for workers in the public sector to form unions via card check and would defend workers’ freedom of speech by preventing employers from forcing staff to attend captive-audience meetings.

Current state law in Vermont requires public sector workers to move through a multistep process that typically ends in a secret-ballot election in order to form a union. These elections usually take place several weeks from when the petition is filed, giving employers more opportunities to spread misinformation and intimidate staff. Extending majority sign-up (also called card check) to public sector workers simplifies the process by requiring recognition after a majority have signed cards authorizing union representation and allows workers to start the contract negotiations faster. Additionally, as of now, Vermont employers can discipline workers for refusing to attend meetings for which the primary purpose is the expression of the employerʼs religious or political beliefs. During union drives, these captive-audience meetings, which are typically mandatory or involve coercion, can be used to dissuade workers from joining a union.

The Vermont State Labor Council reports the following:

The VT AFL-CIO Executive Board adopted the following resolution supporting the UAW's call to align contract expirations at a meeting on March 11th, 2024. Below is the full text of the resolution.

RESOLUTION

of the

VERMONT STATE LABOR COUNCIL

SUPPORTING THE UAW’S CALL TO ALIGN CONTRACT EXPIRATIONS

[Adopted by a motion of the VT AFL-CIO Executive Board on March 11, 2024.]

Whereas, big business and their political allies have waged a war on workers, and

Whereas, the war on workers has led to deteriorating conditions and spiraling income inequality for working families, and

Whereas, union workers are fighting back, taking strike action in order to secure fair contracts for themselves and for their communities, and

Whereas, working Americans have turned to unions to fight for economic justice and a voice on the job, with 67% of Americans approving of labor unions, and

Whereas, organized labor must find creative ways to maximize our economic power and fight against corporate greed, and

Whereas, the United Auto Workers, led by President Shawn Fain, have called for unions to align contract expirations for May 1, or “International Workers’ Day,” with the aim of a mass strike on May 1, 2028, and

Whereas, the power that unions have derives from our unity; therefore be it

Resolved, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO echoes President Fain’s call for aligning contract expirations for May 1, and to prepare for potential mass strike action on May 1, 2028, and therefore be it

Resolved, that Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO encourages unions to consider aligning contract expirations, whether on May 1 or other dates, and therefore be it

Resolved, that Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO commits to unwaveringly supporting affiliates and the broader labor movement in bargaining fair contracts, and in anticipated or active labor disputes.

Beka Mendelsohn of Scoopers United speaks at the 2023 May Day Rally in

 Battery Park, Burlington.

The opinions above reflect the those of the author and are not those of the Marion-Polk

-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter, AFL-CIO or the Oregon AFL-CIO.

A Stunning Report On Child Labor By Democracy Now!

From Democracy Now!:

A cleaning company based in Tennessee has been fined over $649,000 after a U.S. Labor Department investigation found it was employing at least two dozen children, some as young as 13 years old, to clean slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants. Fayette Janitorial Service was found to have hired children to work overnight cleaning shifts, at times using corrosive materials to clean “dangerous kill floor equipment” at facilities in Sioux City, Iowa, and Accomac, Virginia. On Monday, New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing how thousands of migrant children, most of them from Mexico and Central America, risk their lives working at meatpacking plants and factories. Go to democracynow.org to see our interviews with Hannah Dreier, as well as other Pulitzer winners this year, including Nathan Thrall, Justin Elliott and Jonathan Eig.

Breeze Flight Attendants Vote Overwhelmingly to Join the Flight Attendant Union

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 7, 2024) — Breeze Airways Flight Attendants voted 76.3% to join the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) in an election certified today by the National Mediation Board (NMB). AFA continues the wave of union organizing in the south with Flight Attendants based in the least unionized state of South Carolina and Florida, Louisiana, Utah, and Virginia - all in the bottom ten.

“Breeze Flight Attendants filed for an election two weeks after taking their campaign public in January and kept organizing together to turn out a clear mandate to address their concerns at work. Today they gain the legal right to bargain and have a voice in their future at Breeze. We are inspired by their solidarity and thrilled to welcome them to our AFA family,” said AFA International President Sara Nelson. “Our labor movement is growing. Everywhere.”

Read the full story here. The union's websitre is here.