Retired UE Washington Representative Chris Townsend joined representatives of National Nurses United (NNU), Global Health Partners, Code Pink, and four pro-worker members of Congress on June 30 to denounce the U.S. blockade of Cuba. Despite the 100-degree heat wave, about 100 people attended the action in front of Congress.
One hundred and twenty-five years ago today, 82 metal workers, guests, and allies gathered in the city of Livorno to found the Federazione Impiegati Operai Metallurgici (Federation of Metalworkers), Italy’s militant metalworkers’ union, which, over the past eleven years, has become one of UE’s closest international allies. UE General President Scott Slawson sent a letter to FIOM General Secretary Michele De Palma congratulating FIOM on their anniversary.
Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union and a close UE ally, joined 27 other Canadian unions and faith and civil-society organizations in calling for peace, sovereignty and solidarity with the people of Cuba. The joint statement, released on Monday, calls on the Canadian government to oppose threats of military intervention by the U.S. and to speak out against unlawful measures harming Cuban people.
UE General President Scott Slawson sent a letter today to members of the Metal Workers Union of the Argentine Republic (UOM), expressing UE’s solidarity with UOM members after the government removed their democratically-elected leaders. In May, the National Labor Appeals Court ordered a 180-day judicial intervention in UOM, annulling the re-election of General Secretary Abel Furlán.
After a five-month, well-organized campaign, UE Local 255 won an important battle with Hunger Mountain Co-op, pressuring management to uphold the internal hiring procedures specified in our contract.
“When we fight, we win,” said Toby Madrone, our local’s president. “We led an intentional and thoughtful internal campaign that included educating our coworkers, which helped them understand and unify around our fight. And it worked!”
In addition to discussing UE’s organizational, educational, political action and international work, GEB members debated and approved a statement on the use of “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) technology. Originally drafted by a group of rank-and-file members from UE’s higher education locals, the statement “AI for Public Good, Not Private Profit” calls for “public and worker control of Artificial Intelligence technologies, and for the end of their use for mass surveillance and as weapons of war.”
Members of Library Workers United (LWU), a chapter of UE Local 150 in North Carolina, held their first public action on May 11 outside the Wake County Commissioners’ public budget meeting. This rally and the public comments given by workers and their supporters was the culmination of a yearlong campaign against cuts to staff hours in the Wake County Public Library system. (Wake County includes Raleigh, the state’s capital.)
Since his retirement at the end of October, former UE General President Carl Rosen has been honored for his life of service to the working class in the halls of Congress, by the Chicago City Council, and by the labor-community coalition Jobs with Justice.
Meeting in Pittsburgh this week, UE’s General Executive Board debated and approved a statement on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. The board declared that “The U.S. labor movement must be prepared to fight for AI to be used to improve people’s lives, not to drive mass unemployment, climate disaster, war, and increased profits for the ultrarich.” They conclude with a call “for public and worker control of Artificial Intelligence technologies, and for the end of their use for mass surveillance and as weapons of war, in order to ensure that AI tools are used for the benefit of working people and not to further enrich the capitalist class.”
Former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who died on Tuesday, has been widely commemorated as one of the first openly gay members of Congress — and the first to come out voluntarily. Less known is the leading role he played in assisting UE locals fighting plant closings, from the early 1980s through 2010. Throughout his more than three decades in office, he was one of UE’s closest allies in Congress — and UE one of his staunchest defenders when he was attacked for his sexuality.
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