UE Convention Resolutions
End Discrimination
Based on Sexual Orientation
Throughout history, the most powerful weapon in the bosses' arsenal has been division. When we are united, working people win great victories against the most powerful corporations and governments in the world. When divided, whether by craft, sex, race, age, sexual orientation or in any other way, we often suffer great defeats and our living standards suffer. Workers are always strongest when we have been most inclusive, when we have taken to heart the slogan "an injury to one is an injury to all." The UE was founded on the principle that, "we form an organization to unite all workers." Article IV of the UE Constitution grants the right of all working people, regardless of sexual orientation, to belong to and actively participate in our union. Just as throughout society, there are many gay and lesbian individuals who are members and leaders of our union.
In 37 states, it is legal for employers to fire workers simply because they know or think they know they are gay or lesbian. Millions of workers lack basic protections against job discrimination due to their sexual orientation and this, in turn, marginalizes and threatens those legal protections we do have against race and gender discrimination. Anti-discrimination laws and contract clauses are not the gifts of benevolent governments and bosses; they are won through struggle. We must fight to make sure that all of our co-workers are protected against discrimination.
According to a 1997 General Accounting Office (GAO) report, civil marriage brings with it at least 1,049 legal protections and responsibilities from the federal government, including the right to take leave from work to care for a family member, care for a newborn or newly adopted child, the right to sponsor a spouse for immigration purposes, and Social Security survivor benefits that can be the difference between security and poverty. Civil unions, however, bring none of these protections.
In 2004, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that denying same-sex couples the right to marriage was discrimination and violated the state's constitution. Since then all workers in Massachusetts now enjoy all the benefits that marriage gives different-sex couples, and the sky has not fallen. Since then the entire New England region, with the sole exception of Rhode Island, and Iowa have enacted legislation banning the discrimination of people because of what who they choose to marry.
There continues to be efforts to strip any legal rights from same-sex couples. We all have the same rights regardless of color, sex, age, or sexual orientation. A majority vote to discriminate against a minority does not make it right – our rights should never be left up to referendum.
Unity and solidarity are not conditions we take for granted. We must continue to educate ourselves and our co-workers to maintain and strengthen it in the face of new challenges.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 71st UE CONVENTION:
- Encourages all levels of the union to educate our membership and communities on the destructive nature of discrimination based on sexual orientation, including marriage discrimination, and the true anti-worker agenda of those who try to profit politically from it;
- Encourages locals to bargain anti-discrimination clauses that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in their contracts;
- Encourages locals to bargain for health insurance coverage for same-sex and different-sex domestic partners and leave-of-absence language that gives domestic partners the same rights as married employees;
- Opposes any attempts to codify marriage discrimination by any method at any level;
- Calls on locals to defend our members aggressively against on-the-job discrimination based on sexual orientation;
- Calls on Congress to enact the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation throughout the country;
- Encourages members regardless of sexual orientation to actively support organizations fighting discrimination, including the labor-based Pride at Work.