The United, Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), which represents 35,000 private and public sector workers throughout the U.S., has voted to endorse Bernie Sanders for President. The endorsement was approved, without opposition, by rank-and-file local delegates from the union’s three regions (Western, Northeast, and Eastern) over the past six weeks.
UE has issued a leaflet comparing the two leading candidates in the Democratic primaries, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, on major issues of concern to union members.
Delegates to UE’s 74th International Convention in August adopted a resolution titled “Independent Rank-and-File Political Action.” It briefly describes the political attacks on labor and how workers have been fighting back. It says this about candidates:
There were some good ideas in President Obama’s final State of the Union address, but the idea that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will help our economy wasn’t one of them. TPP would send more jobs overseas to low wage countries, and allow multinational corporations to overturn our environmental and safety laws.
Please click on this link, then enter your zip code to send a message to your member of Congress and your U.S. Senators, telling them to VOTE NO on TPP.
UE is one of 1,525 organizations who have signed a letter urging Congress to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Click here to read the letter. Click here to read coverage in the Washington Post.
In September I was part of a delegation of Connecticut union leaders to Palestine, at the invitation of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU). Our group included State AFL-CIO President Emeritus John Olsen; State Building Trades President David Roche; Bill Shortell, political director for the International Association of Machinists Eastern States Conference; John Fussell, union attorney and former 1199 vice president; Steelworkers Union activist Anne Marie Miller; and others from the Tree of Life Educational Foundation.
On September 24 UE received something very unusual: a huge “thank you” note, signed by 41 organizations and more than 3,000 people in 54 countries (most in the U.S.), in response to a resolution passed by our convention. The “thank you” expresses appreciation for the position taken by the recent UE Convention in the resolution “Justice and Peace for the Peoples of Palestine And Israel.”
On Tuesday, September 1, UE issued the following press release:
At its national convention in Baltimore August 16-20, the United Electrical Workers union (UE) adopted a resolution endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) to pressure Israel to end the occupation and grant Palestinians their freedom. UE is now the first national U.S. union to endorse BDS. The full resolution is below.
At its meeting May 28-29 in Pittsburgh, UE's General Executive Board adopted the following statement on the presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders.
Meeting in Pittsburgh on May 28-29, the UE General Executive Board adopted a statement that endorses the fight of Local 893 against the efforts of Iowa Governor Terry Branstatd to privatize Medicaid. The GEB's statement appears below.
UE OFFICERS' STATEMENT ON VENZUELA
On March 9 President Obama issued an executive order that declared “a national emergency” because, it said, Venezuela is an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” The executive order imposed sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials whom the White House accuses of “undermin(ing) democratic processes or institutions,” “violence or abuse of human rights,” undermining freedom of expression, and/or “public corruption.”