Dear John,
UE’s officers put out a statement yesterday in response to the “growing concern around our nation that our current president will not accept the results [of the presidential election] if he is not re-elected.”
“If this does happen,” the statement continues, “we encourage all UE members to be prepared to defend our country’s democracy.” The group Protect the Results and others are planning actions on November 4 to ensure that all ballots are counted and that the results are respected.
Please take a moment to find and RSVP for an action near you. (NOTE: there are many more actions than the initial map can handle, making some areas of the map seem blank even though there are actions planned there. Enter your zip code to find an action in your area.)
While we hope there will be no need to mobilize, we must be prepared to defend our democratic institutions. As the UE officers’ statement says, “Every vote counts and every vote must be counted and respected, whether cast by a Democrat, a Republican or anyone else.
“The labor movement has a special obligation to defend democratic government. Corporations and the wealthy already are able to buy influence on government policy. One of the few counterbalances to this is the fact that politicians have to face the mass of voters every two, four or six years. If incumbents can simply declare that certain voters’ votes don’t matter, corporate influence on our government will only increase and the working class will suffer even more.
“UE prizes our democratic traditions as a rank-and-file union. If union members do not approve a contract through a democratic majority vote, union officers do not have the right to impose it on them. Similarly, without the support of the general public, elected officials, whether a mayor, a senator, or the president, have no authority to govern.”
Read the full statement on UE’s website
