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WORKERS HERE HAVE MORE IN COMMON WITH PALESTINIANS BEING BOMBED THAN
THE BILLIONAIRES BOMBING THEM
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Carl Rosen, Andrew Dinkelaker, Mark Meinster
October 31, 2025
In These Times
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_ Even beyond the prospects of a ceasefire, the United Electrical
Workers are calling for an end to US military aid to Israel—and why
other unions should be working towards the same thing. _
UE Local 197 in DC , Courtesy of United Electrical Workers
Despite the announcement of a ceasefire earlier this month, the
conditions that sparked global outrage remain
unchanged — Palestinians are still being killed, their land is
still being stolen, and the apartheid regime that Israel has imposed
on Palestinians for decades remains intact. The United Electrical,
Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) was one of the first unions
to call for a ceasefire
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on October 20, 2023. Now, as UE leaders, we believe more than ever
that the labor movement still has a duty, not only to speak out, but
to do the work necessary to ending the injustice against Palestinians
so long as it continues to be funded by U.S. workers’ taxes and
supported by our government.
During floor debate at the most recent UE national convention, held in
Chicago, a rank-and-file member from Massachusetts stood up to say,
“We have a lot more in common with people [in Palestine] being
bombed — workers like us, members of the same class — than
we do with the billionaires and the capitalists telling us that we
should be happy about this.”
The remark was met with applause from the room filled with
200 people.
It was at this convention that UE voted on a bold resolution to
“End the Genocide in Palestine
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The resolution notes that, “There is only one word which is
adequate to describe Israel’s actions, and that is genocide,”
supports Palestinian self-determination and the right of return for
refugees, and, most notably, demands that the U.S. government
immediately cease all military aid to Israel.
By taking this strong stand for Palestine, making clear why U.S.
workers have a stake in Palestinian liberation, and doing it through
a rank-and-file, democratic process, our members are embodying the
best traditions of the labor movement, and demonstrating the true
meaning of the labor movement slogan “an injury to one is an
injury to all.”
Now, beyond a ceasefire agreement, is the time for labor to put their
words into action and coalesce around demands to end U.S. aid to
Israel and to support an arms embargo
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finally putting an end to U.S. material support for Israel once and
for all.
Our union’s engagement with Palestine dates back to a resolution
passed at our 53rd Convention in 1988, “Time for a Just
Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” The resolution
noted that, “The occupation by Israel of the West Bank and other
Arab lands since 1967 has blocked the exercise of Palestinian national
rights and resulted in ongoing violations of human, social, political,
economic and particularly trade union rights of Palestinians.” At
UE’s 74th Convention in 2015, delegates endorsed the worldwide
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel
to recognize Palestinian rights. Our resolutions on Palestine came
about from our long-held belief that the labor movement should
formulate its own positions on foreign policy, independent of both
political parties and the government.
Since Israel began its most recent aggression on Palestine, UE and six
other unions
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sent a letter
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to then President Biden last year demanding the U.S. government halt
all aid to Israel. UE and the National Nurses United (NNU) sent
a similar letter to President Trump
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on Oct. 2.
Unfortunately, for most of the 20th century, the mainstream of the
American labor movement uncritically supported the foreign policy of
the U.S. government. This had direct negative consequences for
American workers. The massive resources devoted to the
military-industrial complex were resources that could have gone to
meet the needs of working people. In the later part of the century,
union members increasingly saw their jobs shipped to low-wage
countries where our country’s military and intelligence services had
worked to prevent pro-worker governments from coming to power, or to
overthrow them when they did.
In the last few decades, the U.S. labor movement has begun to show
more signs of independence. In response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq,
unions representing more than two million members joined UE in
founding U.S. Labor Against the War. In early 2024, unions
representing over nine million members formed the National Labor
Network for Ceasefire [[link removed]], and in
July of that year, seven national unions, representing over half of
the union members in the U.S., sent a letter to President Biden
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demanding that he cut off military aid to Israel — representing
the first time that a significant part of the U.S. labor movement was
willing to oppose the foreign policy of a Democratic president.
This is a good start, but it is important for more unions to take up
this issue. The U.S. labor movement has a direct material stake in
ending military aid to Israel. The billions of dollars that go to
providing Israel’s military with tanks and bombs could be better
spent providing jobs, housing, education and healthcare to working
people at home.
We also have a moral stake, because our tax dollars are being used to
continue Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.
As the negotiations around the most recent ceasefire make clear, our
government, as Israel’s largest arms supplier, has enormous
leverage. There is no reason Trump, or Biden before him, could not
have ended the slaughter in Gaza at any moment.
That means even beyond a ceasefire, it is our job to use our leverage
as workers to help put an end to the injustice against Palestinians.
Since the announcement of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least
200 Palestinians, including with lethal air strikes.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed by Israel,
and the millions who have been displaced, driven from their land, and
forced to live as refugees or under apartheid conditions, are our
fellow working people. The most basic meaning of solidarity requires
that those of us in the labor movement take up their cause and push
demands to end U.S. support for Israel’s occupation, oppression, and
genocide of the Palestinian people. We hope that, in the months and
years ahead, more unions will join us in doing so.
===
Carl Rosen, Andrew Dinkelaker, Mark Meinster are the three National
Officers of UE.
===
Reprinted with permission from _In These Times_
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* Ceasefire; Labor Solidarity with Palestinians; United Electrical
Radio and Machine Workers of America;
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