UE Convention Resolutions
Build Jobs With Justice
And The People's Movement
UE has a strong and proud tradition as a democratic, rank-and-file union. We are accountable to the members through regular meetings, frequent election of stewards and officers, strict financial controls, open books, and constitutional limitations to prevent staff control of the union. From the smallest grievance in the workplace to the boldest political aspirations of working people for a better world, we know change comes not from leaders, experts and politicians, but from working people taking action in solidarity with each other.
Unfortunately, this rank-and-file approach to trade unionism has not been widely embraced in the American trade union movement in recent decades. UE exited the C.I.O in 1949, along with a dozen other unions, as that industrial union federation embraced narrow-minded, bureaucratic, top-down business-unionism of the A.F.L. and the most conservative elements in the C.I.O. With no national labor federation today supporting UE’s rank-and-file trade unionism, we ally ourselves with trade union and community allies. Among them are Jobs with Justice, the Labor Education and Research Project (the publisher of Labor Notes), Grassroots Global Justice, and the World and U.S. Social Forums.
The birth of Jobs with Justice (JwJ) in the late 1980s was a response to failure of business unionism. When the workers of Eastern Airlines struck in order to defend their hard-won wages, benefits, and working conditions, the AFL-CIO, and the labor movement at large, was ill-equipped to provide adequate support for this struggle. JwJ was born as progressives and trade union members joined together with community activists to provide support for working people's struggle against big business and their political front men.
Jobs with Justice has developed steadily since its inception. It is now the leading national coalition that unites labor, student, youth, community and faith organizations, and operates more than 50 chapters across the country. Several hundred thousand people annually participate in some struggle, activity, or campaign led or initiated by JwJ. Whether walking picket lines, supporting organizing campaigns in the face of furious employer resistance, or staging town-hall style Workers' Rights Board hearings as a means of gaining publicity for our battles and agenda, JwJ does the work that the labor movement finds itself incapable or unwilling to do.
UE has been a member of Jobs with Justice since its beginning more than 25 years ago. We commend JwJ for its steadfast, honest, no-nonsense approach to worker solidarity and support. Jobs with Justice has always returned our respect with their own as they value our contribution and welcome our presence, demonstrating the real meaning of the phrase "labor solidarity." UE's participation in Jobs with Justice has never been conditioned on affiliation to any labor federation.
Over the last two years JwJ has mounted many serious campaigns in support of UE locals. Among them have been their support for the occupation of Republic Windows and Doors by UE Local 1110 members in Chicago; the struggle against Wells Fargo Bank at Quad City Die Casting in Moline, Illinois, by UE Local 1174; the organizing victories and first contract wins by UE Local 208, contract service workers at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service Centers in St. Albans, Vermont, and UE Local 1008 in Laguna Niguel, California; and the continuing battle of UE Local 267 for a fair contract at University of Vermont. In many states, cities, and towns throughout this nation JwJ has become the leading labor and community organization supporting the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and is leading the fight for universal healthcare as a human right.
JwJ has led the effort to demonstrate, organize, and mobilize workers and our communities to push the Obama administration and Congress to bail out the workers, and not the banks. Finally, Jobs with Justice was our major partner during the successful months-long "Resist and Recovery" cross-country tour with Local 1110 members and UE staff.
Support from JwJ continues to be a key part of our organizing and contract campaigns and working with UE members to develop coalitions with our communities and student populations.
Labor Notes, and its growing network of supporters, have been promoting rank-and-file unionism within the U.S. labor movement for over two decades. Their magazine, website, conferences, worker schools, and books have become indispensable resources for U.S. trade unionists. UE leaders, rank-and-file members, and staff contribute regularly to Labor Notes, sharing our experiences and analysis with other trade unionists worldwide. Labor Notes conferences are now the largest gatherings of rank-and-file union members in the country. A sizable delegation of UE members and staff attended the 2008 Labor Notes conference and played an important role conducting workshops and plenary sessions.
Since 2002, UE has participated in the World Social Forum (WSF), where trade unions and social movements from around the world gather under the banner of "Another World Is Possible" to discuss how to oppose corporate globalization and replace it with alternatives that place people over profits. Our participation in the WSF has strengthened our ties with trade unions in Brazil, India, and many other countries, and has been useful in building concrete relationships of solidarity with other workers who share the same employers. It has also led to our participation in Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ), a national alliance of U.S. labor and community organizations, based in and accountable to working-class communities, communities of color, and indigenous peoples.
The basis for UE's participation in national and international coalitions, organizations and gatherings such as Jobs with Justice, Labor Notes, Grassroots Global Justice and the World and U.S. Social Forums has always been a desire to build a more vigorous, responsive, and relevant movement, and to work with allies – both trade unions and community organizations – regardless of affiliation status, size, or politics. If another world is possible, a world of justice for working people, we need to build a rank-and-file based movement to make it a reality.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 71st UE CONVENTION:
- Calls on the union at all levels to participate in, support, and join Jobs with Justice, and to foster the formation of new local chapters where the need arises;
- Calls on the union at all levels to participate in the Jobs with Justice national meeting in 2011, the Labor Notes Conference in 2010, and to participate in the G20 summit protest activities and demonstrations in Pittsburgh in September 2009;
- Reaffirms participation in Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ);
- Encourages members to subscribe to Labor Notes, for locals to purchase bulk subscriptions to distribute to their leadership and membership, purchase of Labor Notes books, and members to continue to submit articles for publication.