Hi John,
I’m delighted to discover that after the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, UE is returning to in-person worker-to-worker exchanges. We’re sending a group of rank-and-file members to Mexico where they will be hosted by the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), one of the few federations in Mexico with a long, proud history of democratic trade unionism.
Will you help us raise $5,000 by December 31 to send union members to Mexico? Your support will cover food, accommodations, airfare and interpretation.
Recently, I was thrilled to attend the UE Convention as the Florence Criley Women’s Leadership Series speaker. My successor Kari Thompson, arranged for a discussion of my recent book: International Solidarity in Action at City of Asylum. I chose to read from the chapter on the Worker-to-Worker exchanges with the FAT because of the transformational impact they have had both on rank-and-file workers and on the culture of the UE. You can watch the video here:
https://vimeo.com/857170291
Since 1995 UE has brought rank-and-file workers together with their counterparts across borders so that they can learn about the experiences and struggles of workers in other countries and share their own challenges and successes in improving workplace conditions in the US. Rank-and-file members of the UE and FAT tour plants, walk picket lines, compare organizing approaches and systems of labor law, and speak on radio and television. They share information, build solidarity, and take what they’ve learned back to their locals and communities.
Worker-to-worker exchange to Uruachi, Chihuahua, in March 2007
US workers discover that while employers frame economics as a zero-sum game and say that they relocate jobs to Mexico because labor is cheaper there – it’s simply untrue. Meanwhile, Mexican workers learn that labor law violations, hunger, and lack of medical care are all serious problems in the US. Workers often return from these exchanges with a different understanding of the world, lots of energy and the determination to stand up for themselves and for workers everywhere.
UE’s Worker-to-Worker Exchange Program is life-changing, but it doesn’t come cheap. We’re raising money to ensure that this extraordinary work continues. Will you help us build international worker solidarity?
Peace and solidarity,
Robin Alexander,
Retired Director of International Affairs, UE
