Our Unions And Demands For A Ceasefire In Palestine/Israel

I have done a few posts here on our labor movement and demands for a ceasefire in Israel/Palestine. There are strong arguments on both sides of the issue, but I suspect that most union members don't know that our unions are involved in foreign affairs and international policies. At its best this union attention to international developments benefits working people the world over by building unity behind common demands. On the question of the ceasefire, though, the labor movement in the United States has a divided house.

That we have a divided house on this issue is not necessarily a bad thing. For generations our unions have had too little open discussion and a kind of enforced unity has sometimes prevailed. The pro-ceasefire faction in the labor movement is unique---and is probably interesting to many union members---because it is a coalition of experienced union members, many of whom have been active for almost 50 years, and young people who are new to the labor movement, many of whom organized their way in.  

I am a firm supporter of a ceasefire agreement and I fully support the unions, union leaders and union members who have acted with courage and dispatch to win broad union support for a ceasefire. In some unions, and in the AFL-CIO, this has meant bumping heads with union leaders and others who are opposed to a ceasefire agreement. The mainstream labor movement in the United States has been a longstanding supporter of Israel, and the ties that make that support possible are quite strong. The more progressive World Federation of Trade Unions takes a very different position. The International Trade Union Confederation essentially supports the position on the conflict taken by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Thus, the AFL-CIO is somewhat isolated within the world trade union movement. A recent but already dated summary of how world labor differs on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is here.

I attended two meetings about labor, the working-class in the United Sates and the ceasefire yesterday and found that our union members and friends who support a ceasefire are all over the map on why they support a ceasefire and how they hope to organize greater support for our position. I saw something of this recently when I attended a pro-Palestinian rally led by an organization that used the issue of the war to build itself rather than build unity for peace and justice in Palestine/Israel. They seemed to be doing an infomercial that said "We interrupt this war to tell you all about us." Those in the labor movement who are opposed to a ceasefire, or to unions taking a pro-ceasefire position, are more focused and unified in their game plans. And some of these voices in the labor movement have been good on other issues even while being wrong about the need for a ceasefire. Can either of the sides fighting this out tell us how supporting their positions builds our labor movement?

As we might expect, Labor Notes has a leading position in the effort to win unions to a pro-ceasefire position. The AFL-CIO position is briefly summarized here.

One of the meetings that I attended yesterday was sponsored by Communications Workers Of America Local 7250 and featured a talk by long-time Palestinian activist and trade unionist Imad Temeiza. He is a leader of the Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union. This union supports the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) aimed at Israel. Brother Temeiza showed clips from cellphone videos made in Gaza recently that brought some people at the meeting to tears. It is a hard thing to see people suffering and children dying. A good introduction to Brother Temeiza's work can be found here:

The current issue of the Northwest Labor Press has a helpful article mentioning that "more local and national unions in the United States have issued statements calling for a cease-fire." The article expands on this by saying that "A letter sponsored by United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and Seattle-based UFCW Local 3000 calls on President Joe Biden and Congress to push for an immediate cease-fire, and for the release of hostages taken by Hamas. More than 50 local unions have signed the letter, including some in Oregon and Washington: PROTEC17, AFT-Oregon, AFT Local 6069 (Coalition of Graduate Employees at OSU), New Seasons Labor Union, Oregon Education Association, Portland Association of Teachers, and UNITE HERE Local 8." My union, the National Writers Union, should be listed there as well.

The People's World online publication has an article dated December 15 that goes into greater detail regarding where our labor movement and some supportive politicians stand on the ceasefire and why they take the positions that they do. The People's World article explains that "Labor leaders from across the United States met in the capital on Thursday, Dec. 14, to demand President Joe Biden call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in occupied Palestine. Joined by Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Andre Carson, D-Ind., and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., union members and national leaders assembled to make their demands for an end to the genocide in Gaza clear. Officially represented were the United Auto Workers, the American Postal Workers Union, United Electrical Workers, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, and the National Labor Network for a Ceasefire. The event was called to build awareness and support for H.Res. 786, a ceasefire bill in Congress." As the article points out, something is moving when the National Education Association goes into action on the issue. The event that was held on December 14 can be seen on Representative Cori Bush's Facebook page. Representative Bush's press releases on the situation in Palestine/Israel can be found here.

Senator's Merkley's support for a ceasefire is explained here.

Photo taken from the Michigan Advance

The opinions expressed here do not reflect those of the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter or the Oregon AFL-CIO.