UE in the News

A group of unions representing millions of workers sent a letter on Tuesday to the White House demanding a cease-fire in the war in Gaza and that the United States stop sending military aid to Israel. [ ... ]

Given their membership, the union letter is a strong statement from a key electorate that the administration needs to update its Mideast foreign policy, a policy that Vice President Kamala Harris, who was endorsed by Mr. Biden and several top Democrats to become the Democrats’ nominee, will also have to speak for.

Among the speakers at the meeting was Larry Hopkins, who works for a rail crew transportation company and lives on the Southwest Side of Chicago.

“I’m bounded by four rail yards within a 2- to 4-mile radius,” said Hopkins, western region vice president of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America. “These train locomotives are polluting our air. These locomotives are causing major problems in our communities and harming railroad workers and drivers like myself.”

UE General President Carl Rosen writes in Labor Notes:

Why were UE members ready to act? We educate our membership on the issues, discuss and debate them in a democratic fashion, and our members make union policy at conventions held every two years.

On Monday, sanitation workers, firefighters and faith leaders rallied ahead of the city council meeting. George Bacote, a sanitation worker, told ABC11 that this budget is critical.

"A lot of my coworkers are leaving the job to start their own companies," said Bacote "They feel like they'd be better off. I've thought about it many, times many times. It's always playing in my head. I'm tired of the stress and headache."

UE General President Carl Rosen joined economist and labor historian Michael Zweig on WPKN’s Monthly Labor Report to discuss the nation-wide campaign by organized labor to demand an immediate and permanent cease fire in the ongoing slaughter by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.

A major fundraising campaign is underway to save the historical “Solidarity” mural inside a Near West Side union hall before the building is sold and redeveloped into apartments.

Spanning approximately 500 square feet across two floors of UE Hall, 37 S. Ashland Ave., the labor-themed mural illustrates the history of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and the labor movement from the 1930s onward.

Union officials with Chicago’s United Electrical Workers (UE) are vowing to save a unique, labor-themed mural from being destroyed within the coming months.

The “Solidarity” mural is inside the United Electrical Workers Union Hall on Ashland Avenue near Monroe Street. The  building had to be sold, though, and the new owners can't keep it on the walls.