UnitedElectricalWorkers &mdash; Fight Back! News https://fightbacknews.org/tag:UnitedElectricalWorkers News and Views from the People's Struggle Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:57:35 +0000 https://i.snap.as/RZCOEKyz.png UnitedElectricalWorkers &mdash; Fight Back! News https://fightbacknews.org/tag:UnitedElectricalWorkers FRSO Labor Commission: Victory to the UE strike at Wabtec! https://fightbacknews.org/frso-labor-commission-victory-ue-strike-wabtec?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization stands in solidarity with the 1400 workers of UE Locals 506 and 618 who have been on strike against Wabtec Corp since June 22, 2023. !--more-- Members with the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Locals 506 and 618, who build locomotive engines for Wabtec Corporation in Erie, Pennsylvania voted down the company’s last, best and final offer on June 22 and have been out on the picket line now for over two months. The workers are striking to win wage increases, better vacation scheduling and more environmentally friendly production. However, some workers have reported that the most important issue that led to the walkout was the right to strike over grievances. Striking over grievances used to be common, but now it’s nearly unheard of in the United States. Although fighting for the right to strike during a contract is rare, it is an important tool for class struggle unionists. The ability to strike over grievances is powerful. UE has a long, proud history of class struggle unionism, making it an outlier in history and a beacon for labor militants wanting to build a union movement capable of challenging our oppressors. UE’s pamphlet “Them and Us Unionism” published in 2020 draws a clear line in the sand between workers and the capitalist class. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is proud to raise our fists in solidarity with the 1400 members on the picket line in Erie. Many of us are trade unionists leading fights on the shop floor every day. We hope that all workers, union or otherwise, join us in standing in solidarity with the strikers from UE. Talk to your coworkers about the courage displayed by these workers and encourage your union to send messages of support and donations to the strike fund. A united working class can accomplish anything. When we fight, we win! #EriePA #UnitedElectricalWorkers #Strikes div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization stands in solidarity with the 1400 workers of UE Locals 506 and 618 who have been on strike against Wabtec Corp since June 22, 2023.

Members with the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) Locals 506 and 618, who build locomotive engines for Wabtec Corporation in Erie, Pennsylvania voted down the company’s last, best and final offer on June 22 and have been out on the picket line now for over two months.

The workers are striking to win wage increases, better vacation scheduling and more environmentally friendly production. However, some workers have reported that the most important issue that led to the walkout was the right to strike over grievances. Striking over grievances used to be common, but now it’s nearly unheard of in the United States.

Although fighting for the right to strike during a contract is rare, it is an important tool for class struggle unionists. The ability to strike over grievances is powerful. UE has a long, proud history of class struggle unionism, making it an outlier in history and a beacon for labor militants wanting to build a union movement capable of challenging our oppressors. UE’s pamphlet “Them and Us Unionism” published in 2020 draws a clear line in the sand between workers and the capitalist class.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is proud to raise our fists in solidarity with the 1400 members on the picket line in Erie. Many of us are trade unionists leading fights on the shop floor every day. We hope that all workers, union or otherwise, join us in standing in solidarity with the strikers from UE. Talk to your coworkers about the courage displayed by these workers and encourage your union to send messages of support and donations to the strike fund. A united working class can accomplish anything. When we fight, we win!

#EriePA #UnitedElectricalWorkers #Strikes

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/frso-labor-commission-victory-ue-strike-wabtec Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:18:13 +0000 United Electrical Workers: “All Workers Must Stand Against Police Violence” https://fightbacknews.org/united-electrical-workers-all-workers-must-stand-against-police-violence?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following June 23 statement of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), General Executive Board. !--more-- The protests that have swept our country since the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in May have put the issue of police violence front and center. The labor movement has a special responsibility to speak out on this issue. Too many of our members have experienced violence and harassment from the police due to nothing more than the color of their skin. All workers who struggle for a better life are threatened when the police are used to violently suppress protest. And just as our country is starved of needed social services due to a bloated military budget, state and local services are underfunded due to overspending on increasingly militarized police forces. We join the call to “defund the police.” What does it mean to defund the police? It means reducing police budgets so we can invest in the economic development and social services that are needed to make all communities safe and prosperous. We need more social workers, mental health professionals, child advocates, sexual assault specialists, and other workers who are actually trained to respond to the types of crises that all too frequently fall to police. The feasibility of such an approach is clear in the fact that nearly every other industrialized nation spends less on police, more on social services, and has lower crime rates. We also need massive investment in preventing the conditions that lead to crime. We live under an economic system that purposefully makes people unemployed in order to keep wages low — it is official government policy to raise interest rates if the unemployment rate gets “too low.” The grinding poverty of unemployment and low-wage jobs is often concentrated in communities of color and rural areas, especially those that have suffered deindustrialization. Under such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that some desperate people turn to breaking the law to provide for themselves and their families. The only way to address this problem is by, as we declared in 1991, “restructuring our economy to provide decent jobs at a living wage for all.” Policing has its roots in institutions that were established to control workers, enforce white supremacy, enable colonialism, and protect the wealth of the capitalist class: slave patrols, “Indian constables,” and the hiring of armed men by governments and corporations to control workers and break strikes in coal fields and industrial cities. The first state police force, the Pennsylvania state police, was created at the behest of mine and factory owners to suppress organization in the coal mines and iron factories and was modeled on the U.S. occupation forces in the Philippines. Bosses continued to use police, the National Guard, and privately-employed company guards to violently suppress the labor movement through the mid-20th century, with hundreds of workers killed during the organizing drives and strikes of the 1930s. In what came to be known as the “Memorial Day Massacre” in 1937, police opened fire on a peaceful march of striking steelworkers on the south side of Chicago, killing ten and injuring nearly one hundred workers and supporters. Public outrage over the massacre, which was captured on film by Paramount Pictures, helped make this the last large-scale killing of striking workers in the U.S., but did not prevent police from violently attacking picketers — including many UE members — during the 1946-47 strikes that consolidated industrial unionism in the electrical, auto and steel industries . Even when the police are not being used to violently attack strikes and protests, their role is to protect the employers’ property, not strikers’ rights — in other words, to protect capital from labor. During UE Local 234’s 2017 strike against Fairbanks Scales in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, police backed up management’s aggressive attempts to bring trucks through picket lines, and in Locals 506 and 618’s 2019 strike against Wabtec in Erie, Pennsylvania, it was the police who enforced the injunction against mass picketing. If police violence against picket lines is less common today than in the past, the same cannot be said for police violence against those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Under the guise of “law and order,” anti-worker politicians have sought to divide the working class by portraying Black people as violent and subhuman, who must be suppressed by police violence. Black people are two and a half times as likely as white people to be killed by the police, with Indigenous and Latino people also significantly more likely than white people to be killed by the police. In the wake of the protests following the 1991 acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers who repeatedly beat Black motorist Rodney King, UE’s General Executive Board declared that “we demand increased federal funding to our cities and states for jobs and social programs to eliminate the economic devastation” that fueled the uprising. Instead, the decades since have seen a bipartisan consensus that the way to deal with social problems is to direct funds — and, increasingly, military equipment — to the police. The share of municipal budgets allotted to police departments has risen consistently over the last four decades, with police now accounting for between 20 and 45 percent of cities’ discretionary spending. In 2014, after the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, the UE board noted that “Local police departments are being transformed into municipal armies, equipped and deployed for combat, which treat residents as ‘the enemy’ rather than as the constituents whom they are committed to protect and serve.” Just as our bloated military-industrial complex leads to unnecessary wars and military interventions overseas, police forces that are too well-funded and too well-armed have come to be seen as the solution to all of the problems in our communities. As the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and too many others are not the result of “a few bad apples” — they are the product of an institution rooted in the violent control of working people and BIPOC communities. Small scale reforms, outlawing police practices that should never have been allowed in the first place, are nowhere close to a full solution. Reforms have been heralded many times before, none of which have seriously dented the systemic problems in American policing. Most police are drawn from working-class families. However, they then become part of an institution that is used for racist and anti-worker purposes. We understand and support the right of any group of workers to organize, but as long as the organizations formed by police use their power to defend violent and racist practices — and as long as police are used to further the interests of the employers instead of those of working-class communities — we cannot consider their orders, associations or “unions” to be part of the labor movement. These organizations have colluded with racist and anti-worker politicians to obtain contracts that effectively make prosecution of most law-breaking by police almost impossible — something none of the rest of us can negotiate. Some have been used to give cover to far-right white nationalists who have made their way onto police forces. Police are given a power that no other worker has, the right to use lethal force, and with that power must come high levels of accountability. When they feel like they can do whatever they want, they are a threat to all working people, and especially to BIPOC communities, whose voices have historically been ignored. The recent protests have been large, multiracial, insistent, and composed largely of the working class, including UE members. They have been held not only in big cities, but also in small towns across the U.S. Many protesters, especially younger people, understand the connection between racist police murders and the role of police in suppressing the working class. The Movement for Black Lives and other organizations involved in the protests have broad pro-worker agendas. We encourage all UE locals to support the protests and to consider holding solidarity actions in the workplace, whether it is taking a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, wearing stickers or buttons, or otherwise engaging their members in this critical issue. It is in the increasing numbers of working people who are willing to engage in aggressive struggles for justice that we find hope for the future of our country, and we urge all in labor to join in this movement. #UnitedStates #Labor #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedElectricalWorkers #GeorgeFloyd div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following June 23 statement of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), General Executive Board.

The protests that have swept our country since the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police in May have put the issue of police violence front and center. The labor movement has a special responsibility to speak out on this issue. Too many of our members have experienced violence and harassment from the police due to nothing more than the color of their skin. All workers who struggle for a better life are threatened when the police are used to violently suppress protest. And just as our country is starved of needed social services due to a bloated military budget, state and local services are underfunded due to overspending on increasingly militarized police forces.

We join the call to “defund the police.” What does it mean to defund the police? It means reducing police budgets so we can invest in the economic development and social services that are needed to make all communities safe and prosperous. We need more social workers, mental health professionals, child advocates, sexual assault specialists, and other workers who are actually trained to respond to the types of crises that all too frequently fall to police. The feasibility of such an approach is clear in the fact that nearly every other industrialized nation spends less on police, more on social services, and has lower crime rates.

We also need massive investment in preventing the conditions that lead to crime. We live under an economic system that purposefully makes people unemployed in order to keep wages low — it is official government policy to raise interest rates if the unemployment rate gets “too low.” The grinding poverty of unemployment and low-wage jobs is often concentrated in communities of color and rural areas, especially those that have suffered deindustrialization. Under such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that some desperate people turn to breaking the law to provide for themselves and their families. The only way to address this problem is by, as we declared in 1991, “restructuring our economy to provide decent jobs at a living wage for all.”

Policing has its roots in institutions that were established to control workers, enforce white supremacy, enable colonialism, and protect the wealth of the capitalist class: slave patrols, “Indian constables,” and the hiring of armed men by governments and corporations to control workers and break strikes in coal fields and industrial cities. The first state police force, the Pennsylvania state police, was created at the behest of mine and factory owners to suppress organization in the coal mines and iron factories and was modeled on the U.S. occupation forces in the Philippines.

Bosses continued to use police, the National Guard, and privately-employed company guards to violently suppress the labor movement through the mid-20th century, with hundreds of workers killed during the organizing drives and strikes of the 1930s. In what came to be known as the “Memorial Day Massacre” in 1937, police opened fire on a peaceful march of striking steelworkers on the south side of Chicago, killing ten and injuring nearly one hundred workers and supporters. Public outrage over the massacre, which was captured on film by Paramount Pictures, helped make this the last large-scale killing of striking workers in the U.S., but did not prevent police from violently attacking picketers — including many UE members — during the 1946-47 strikes that consolidated industrial unionism in the electrical, auto and steel industries .

Even when the police are not being used to violently attack strikes and protests, their role is to protect the employers’ property, not strikers’ rights — in other words, to protect capital from labor. During UE Local 234’s 2017 strike against Fairbanks Scales in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, police backed up management’s aggressive attempts to bring trucks through picket lines, and in Locals 506 and 618’s 2019 strike against Wabtec in Erie, Pennsylvania, it was the police who enforced the injunction against mass picketing.

If police violence against picket lines is less common today than in the past, the same cannot be said for police violence against those who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Under the guise of “law and order,” anti-worker politicians have sought to divide the working class by portraying Black people as violent and subhuman, who must be suppressed by police violence. Black people are two and a half times as likely as white people to be killed by the police, with Indigenous and Latino people also significantly more likely than white people to be killed by the police.

In the wake of the protests following the 1991 acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers who repeatedly beat Black motorist Rodney King, UE’s General Executive Board declared that “we demand increased federal funding to our cities and states for jobs and social programs to eliminate the economic devastation” that fueled the uprising. Instead, the decades since have seen a bipartisan consensus that the way to deal with social problems is to direct funds — and, increasingly, military equipment — to the police. The share of municipal budgets allotted to police departments has risen consistently over the last four decades, with police now accounting for between 20 and 45 percent of cities’ discretionary spending.

In 2014, after the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri, the UE board noted that “Local police departments are being transformed into municipal armies, equipped and deployed for combat, which treat residents as ‘the enemy’ rather than as the constituents whom they are committed to protect and serve.” Just as our bloated military-industrial complex leads to unnecessary wars and military interventions overseas, police forces that are too well-funded and too well-armed have come to be seen as the solution to all of the problems in our communities. As the saying goes, if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and too many others are not the result of “a few bad apples” — they are the product of an institution rooted in the violent control of working people and BIPOC communities. Small scale reforms, outlawing police practices that should never have been allowed in the first place, are nowhere close to a full solution. Reforms have been heralded many times before, none of which have seriously dented the systemic problems in American policing.

Most police are drawn from working-class families. However, they then become part of an institution that is used for racist and anti-worker purposes. We understand and support the right of any group of workers to organize, but as long as the organizations formed by police use their power to defend violent and racist practices — and as long as police are used to further the interests of the employers instead of those of working-class communities — we cannot consider their orders, associations or “unions” to be part of the labor movement. These organizations have colluded with racist and anti-worker politicians to obtain contracts that effectively make prosecution of most law-breaking by police almost impossible — something none of the rest of us can negotiate. Some have been used to give cover to far-right white nationalists who have made their way onto police forces. Police are given a power that no other worker has, the right to use lethal force, and with that power must come high levels of accountability. When they feel like they can do whatever they want, they are a threat to all working people, and especially to BIPOC communities, whose voices have historically been ignored.

The recent protests have been large, multiracial, insistent, and composed largely of the working class, including UE members. They have been held not only in big cities, but also in small towns across the U.S. Many protesters, especially younger people, understand the connection between racist police murders and the role of police in suppressing the working class. The Movement for Black Lives and other organizations involved in the protests have broad pro-worker agendas. We encourage all UE locals to support the protests and to consider holding solidarity actions in the workplace, whether it is taking a knee for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, wearing stickers or buttons, or otherwise engaging their members in this critical issue.

It is in the increasing numbers of working people who are willing to engage in aggressive struggles for justice that we find hope for the future of our country, and we urge all in labor to join in this movement.

#UnitedStates #Labor #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #UnitedElectricalWorkers #GeorgeFloyd

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/united-electrical-workers-all-workers-must-stand-against-police-violence Fri, 26 Jun 2020 00:49:54 +0000 Aramark laundry workers walk off the job https://fightbacknews.org/aramark-laundry-workers-walk-job?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Wisconsin Aramark laundry workers walk off the job.") La Crosse, WI - 75 workers at Aramark Laundry Services staged a walkout during peak work hours on July 31. Members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1121, the workers have been in contract negotiations for several months and have been stonewalled by management. !--more-- While the workers have taken bold steps in that time frame, including lunchtime rallies and a march on the boss to deliver a petition, this is their first shutdown of production for a prolonged period. Workers are demanding higher wages, paid sick days and no new wage tiers. The rally was led by the local’s bargaining committee, along with supporters from nearby UE Locals and regional leadership. The rally was followed by a loud and energetic march around the property, with chants of “Who are we? UE!” and “No contract? No peace!" Aramark’s industrial laundries are notorious for their low wages and unsafe working conditions. Many workers complained about work areas with temperatures reaching above 100 degrees during the hot summer months. Despite these brutal conditions, Aramark is a multi-billion multinational corporation, with their La Crosse facility servicing some of the most profitable companies in Wisconsin. “We work for a 21st century sweat shop,” said Local 1121 leader Charlene Winchell. “Aramark is richer now than they have ever been. They are making billions of dollars with all of our hard work. We deserve a slice of the pie.” When local president Jay Jamesson asked the rallying workers if they were willing to strike to meet their demands, a wave of hands shot up across the crowd. Negotiations are expected to continue this week. #LaCrosseWI #UnitedElectricalWorkers #Aramark #Strikes div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Wisconsin Aramark laundry workers walk off the job.

La Crosse, WI – 75 workers at Aramark Laundry Services staged a walkout during peak work hours on July 31. Members of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1121, the workers have been in contract negotiations for several months and have been stonewalled by management.

While the workers have taken bold steps in that time frame, including lunchtime rallies and a march on the boss to deliver a petition, this is their first shutdown of production for a prolonged period. Workers are demanding higher wages, paid sick days and no new wage tiers.

The rally was led by the local’s bargaining committee, along with supporters from nearby UE Locals and regional leadership. The rally was followed by a loud and energetic march around the property, with chants of “Who are we? UE!” and “No contract? No peace!”

Aramark’s industrial laundries are notorious for their low wages and unsafe working conditions. Many workers complained about work areas with temperatures reaching above 100 degrees during the hot summer months. Despite these brutal conditions, Aramark is a multi-billion multinational corporation, with their La Crosse facility servicing some of the most profitable companies in Wisconsin.

“We work for a 21st century sweat shop,” said Local 1121 leader Charlene Winchell. “Aramark is richer now than they have ever been. They are making billions of dollars with all of our hard work. We deserve a slice of the pie.”

When local president Jay Jamesson asked the rallying workers if they were willing to strike to meet their demands, a wave of hands shot up across the crowd. Negotiations are expected to continue this week.

#LaCrosseWI #UnitedElectricalWorkers #Aramark #Strikes

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/aramark-laundry-workers-walk-job Tue, 01 Aug 2017 14:49:34 +0000 UE leadership releases statement on Ukraine crisis https://fightbacknews.org/ue-leadership-releases-statement-ukraine-crisis?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following May 27 statement from the United Electrical Workers (UE) on developments in the Ukraine and U.S. intervention. !--more-- The Ukraine Crisis and the New Cold War On February 22, the elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup which was supported by the Obama administration. Since then, the country has been torn apart and violence has escalated. On May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, supporters of the new unelected Kiev government, including members of the violent extremist Right Sector party, surrounded peaceful, unarmed anti-government protestors who had taken refuge in the city’s main union hall. The right-wing crowd then set the union hall on fire, and 46 people died by being burned alive or jumping to their deaths trying to escape. We are troubled by this horrific atrocity, and by the fact that mass murder was committed by burning a union hall. We are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, by the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and U.S. and NATO troops and planes in neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which signal the return of the Cold War and the threat of a much hotter war. A defining period in the history of UE was our union’s courageous opposition to the Cold War. At the end of World War II there was great hope among union members and other Americans for a continuation of FDR’s New Deal, with progressive social and economic policies including national healthcare, expanded Social Security, and progress against racial discrimination in employment. What we got instead was the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and the Cold War. Military spending, including the nuclear arms race, continued to trump all other priorities. Local conflicts all over the world were treated as global showdowns between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the name of “fighting communism,” the U.S. sided with the French and British colonial empires against independence movements, and backed many brutal dictators against their own people. The 40-year-long Cold War included some very hot wars – notably Korea and Vietnam. The CIA organized coups that overthrew democratic governments that dared to disagree with the U.S. government or corporations. On the domestic front, the Cold War was a massive attack on civil liberties and an effort to wipe out organizations, including UE, that refused to enlist in the Cold War. UE said the U.S. government should direct its resources toward making life better for its own people. UE favored negotiations to resolve differences between the U.S. and the Soviets, and to end conflicts such as Vietnam. UE said the arms race robbed human needs on both sides of the Cold War divide. As UE President Albert Fitzgerald often said, “You can’t have guns and butter.” The Cold War supposedly ended with 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had been composed of the USSR and its Eastern European allies. A key event was the 1990 agreement between the U.S., West Germany and the Soviet Union allowing the reunification of Germany. In those negotiations, President George H.W. Bush promised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO – the U.S.-led anti-Soviet military alliance – would not expand any further east than Germany. Yet despite that promise, and despite Russia and its former allies no longer having communist governments, NATO has moved steadily eastward toward Russia. NATO now includes the former socialist states of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as three former republics of the U.S.S.R. which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two more former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, have been promised eventual NATO membership. NATO is now clearly an alliance against Russia, sitting on Russia’s doorstep. In late 2013 the U.S. began expressing hostility toward Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and sympathy with the often violent anti-government protestors in Kiev. Yanukovych was not an exemplary leader – we now know that he’d been feathering his own nest – but he was elected in a fair election, and the U.S. supports many governments that are more corrupt and undemocratic than his. What made Yanukovych a target for regime change was his decision in November to reject harsh loan terms from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – including the kind of pension cuts and austerity that have driven Greece into poverty. Yanukovych instead accepted a more favorable offer of economic aid from Russia. His proposal that Ukraine have good economic relations with both Russia and the EU was rejected by the EU and the U.S., which wanted a Ukrainian government hostile to Russia. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met in December 2013 with Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the far-right Svoboda Party. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament had called Svoboda “racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic” and appealed to democratic parties in Ukraine “not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.” In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labeled Svoboda “neo-Nazi” and called for the party to be banned. Svoboada leader Tyahnybok has called for ridding Ukraine of the influence of “the Moscow-Jewish mafia.” Svoboda is also anti-gay, anti-black, and hostile to equal rights for women. But since the overthrow of Yanukovych, Svoboda holds four cabinet ministries in Ukraine’s “provisional government” (including deputy prime minister.) In a Feb. 4 conversation caught on tape, Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev discussed who would get which positions in the new government, including cabinet seats for Svoboda. In Europe since the end of World War II, there has been a political taboo against allowing fascist and neo-Nazi parties into any government. The Obama administration has now broken that taboo and allied our country with fascists in Ukraine. According to German media reports, about 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious U.S. private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in Ukrainian military operations against anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine. News that Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has joined the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas company adds the element of conflict of interest. Obama’s policies toward Ukraine and Russia have significantly increased the chances of military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s two nuclear superpowers. This threatens world peace. It is unclear whether the presidential election conducted on May 25, under conditions of near-civil war, will help to defuse the crisis in Ukraine. We reaffirm UE’s historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe. Bruce Klipple, General President Andrew Dinkelaker, General Secretary-Treasurer Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization May 27, 2014 #Ukraine #AntiwarMovement #UnitedElectricalWorkers #USImperialism #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following May 27 statement from the United Electrical Workers (UE) on developments in the Ukraine and U.S. intervention.

The Ukraine Crisis and the New Cold War

On February 22, the elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup which was supported by the Obama administration. Since then, the country has been torn apart and violence has escalated. On May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, supporters of the new unelected Kiev government, including members of the violent extremist Right Sector party, surrounded peaceful, unarmed anti-government protestors who had taken refuge in the city’s main union hall. The right-wing crowd then set the union hall on fire, and 46 people died by being burned alive or jumping to their deaths trying to escape.

We are troubled by this horrific atrocity, and by the fact that mass murder was committed by burning a union hall. We are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, by the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and U.S. and NATO troops and planes in neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which signal the return of the Cold War and the threat of a much hotter war.

A defining period in the history of UE was our union’s courageous opposition to the Cold War. At the end of World War II there was great hope among union members and other Americans for a continuation of FDR’s New Deal, with progressive social and economic policies including national healthcare, expanded Social Security, and progress against racial discrimination in employment. What we got instead was the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and the Cold War. Military spending, including the nuclear arms race, continued to trump all other priorities. Local conflicts all over the world were treated as global showdowns between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the name of “fighting communism,” the U.S. sided with the French and British colonial empires against independence movements, and backed many brutal dictators against their own people. The 40-year-long Cold War included some very hot wars – notably Korea and Vietnam. The CIA organized coups that overthrew democratic governments that dared to disagree with the U.S. government or corporations. On the domestic front, the Cold War was a massive attack on civil liberties and an effort to wipe out organizations, including UE, that refused to enlist in the Cold War.

UE said the U.S. government should direct its resources toward making life better for its own people. UE favored negotiations to resolve differences between the U.S. and the Soviets, and to end conflicts such as Vietnam. UE said the arms race robbed human needs on both sides of the Cold War divide. As UE President Albert Fitzgerald often said, “You can’t have guns and butter.”

The Cold War supposedly ended with 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had been composed of the USSR and its Eastern European allies. A key event was the 1990 agreement between the U.S., West Germany and the Soviet Union allowing the reunification of Germany. In those negotiations, President George H.W. Bush promised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO – the U.S.-led anti-Soviet military alliance – would not expand any further east than Germany.

Yet despite that promise, and despite Russia and its former allies no longer having communist governments, NATO has moved steadily eastward toward Russia. NATO now includes the former socialist states of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as three former republics of the U.S.S.R. which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two more former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, have been promised eventual NATO membership. NATO is now clearly an alliance against Russia, sitting on Russia’s doorstep.

In late 2013 the U.S. began expressing hostility toward Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and sympathy with the often violent anti-government protestors in Kiev. Yanukovych was not an exemplary leader – we now know that he’d been feathering his own nest – but he was elected in a fair election, and the U.S. supports many governments that are more corrupt and undemocratic than his.

What made Yanukovych a target for regime change was his decision in November to reject harsh loan terms from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – including the kind of pension cuts and austerity that have driven Greece into poverty. Yanukovych instead accepted a more favorable offer of economic aid from Russia. His proposal that Ukraine have good economic relations with both Russia and the EU was rejected by the EU and the U.S., which wanted a Ukrainian government hostile to Russia.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met in December 2013 with Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the far-right Svoboda Party. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament had called Svoboda “racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic” and appealed to democratic parties in Ukraine “not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.” In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labeled Svoboda “neo-Nazi” and called for the party to be banned. Svoboada leader Tyahnybok has called for ridding Ukraine of the influence of “the Moscow-Jewish mafia.” Svoboda is also anti-gay, anti-black, and hostile to equal rights for women.

But since the overthrow of Yanukovych, Svoboda holds four cabinet ministries in Ukraine’s “provisional government” (including deputy prime minister.) In a Feb. 4 conversation caught on tape, Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev discussed who would get which positions in the new government, including cabinet seats for Svoboda.

In Europe since the end of World War II, there has been a political taboo against allowing fascist and neo-Nazi parties into any government. The Obama administration has now broken that taboo and allied our country with fascists in Ukraine. According to German media reports, about 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious U.S. private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in Ukrainian military operations against anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine. News that Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has joined the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas company adds the element of conflict of interest. Obama’s policies toward Ukraine and Russia have significantly increased the chances of military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s two nuclear superpowers. This threatens world peace.

It is unclear whether the presidential election conducted on May 25, under conditions of near-civil war, will help to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

We reaffirm UE’s historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe.

Bruce Klipple, General President

Andrew Dinkelaker, General Secretary-Treasurer

Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization

May 27, 2014

#Ukraine #AntiwarMovement #UnitedElectricalWorkers #USImperialism #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/ue-leadership-releases-statement-ukraine-crisis Wed, 28 May 2014 02:20:14 +0000 Major unions line up to join march against NATO Summit https://fightbacknews.org/major-unions-line-join-march-against-nato-summit?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Chicago, IL - In the past week, unions representing over 135,000 workers have endorsed the protest march on the NATO summit in Chicago, May 20. !--more-- The unions include the Chicago Teachers Union, with 30,000 members; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Locals 73 (25,000 members) and Health Care Illinois/Indiana (80,000 members); and the United Electrical workers Western Region, a smaller union but very important. This is the union that includes the workers who famously occupied Republic Windows and Doors in 2008 and the same factory, now called Serious Materials, in February of this year. Joe Iosbaker, Executive Board member of SEIU Local 73, moved the resolution to endorse in an executive board meeting. He proposed that they unite behind the main slogan of the march, “Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions, the Environment: Not War.” President Christine Boardman spoke in favor, saying, “This is a very important march and I want to see a big contingent of our members out there.” Sarah Chambers, Executive Board member of the Chicago Teachers Union, introduced the motion to their House of Delegations. Commenting on the Local 73 endorsement Iosbaker said, “I’ll be proud to see my union brothers and sisters marching against the NATO/G8 agenda of war on the poor in the interest of the rich.” Local 73 was an early supporter of Iosbaker and 23 other activists who are being attacked by the FBI and Department of Justice for their anti-war and international solidarity efforts. The text of the resolution against the 2012 NATO Summit adopted by Chicago Teachers Union follows: “Whereas, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exists for the purpose of making war against nations and groups that the 1% deems at odds with its interests, and has been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and Whereas, public sector employees, reeling from reduced state and federal revenues due to economic contraction, war and tax cuts for the wealthy, have been especially hard hit; and Whereas, NATO as a vestige of the cold war, continues to fight unjust wars throughout the world even though the cold war has ended; and Whereas, military budgets and expenditures have taken money from education, social services, healthcare and other needed programs causing hardship to the American people and causing a loss of jobs; Whereas, people should be put before profit; money should go to jobs, education, pension, healthcare, housing and the environment, not war; Therefore Be It Resolved, that this body goes on record as expressing its opposition to the NATO summit being held in Chicago May 2012; and Further Be It Resolved, that we call on our members to mobilize and join the planned permitted march to be held on May 20th 2012; and Be it Finally Resolved, that CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) submit a workshop proposal to the People’s Summit on May 12th-May 13th to education people on our vision and to unite with organizations and individuals who dissent from the global vision of NATO.” #ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #UnitedElectricalWorkers #ChicagoTeachersUnion #NATOSummit #ServiceEmployeesInternationalUnionSEIU div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Chicago, IL – In the past week, unions representing over 135,000 workers have endorsed the protest march on the NATO summit in Chicago, May 20.

The unions include the Chicago Teachers Union, with 30,000 members; Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Locals 73 (25,000 members) and Health Care Illinois/Indiana (80,000 members); and the United Electrical workers Western Region, a smaller union but very important. This is the union that includes the workers who famously occupied Republic Windows and Doors in 2008 and the same factory, now called Serious Materials, in February of this year.

Joe Iosbaker, Executive Board member of SEIU Local 73, moved the resolution to endorse in an executive board meeting. He proposed that they unite behind the main slogan of the march, “Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions, the Environment: Not War.” President Christine Boardman spoke in favor, saying, “This is a very important march and I want to see a big contingent of our members out there.”

Sarah Chambers, Executive Board member of the Chicago Teachers Union, introduced the motion to their House of Delegations.

Commenting on the Local 73 endorsement Iosbaker said, “I’ll be proud to see my union brothers and sisters marching against the NATO/G8 agenda of war on the poor in the interest of the rich.” Local 73 was an early supporter of Iosbaker and 23 other activists who are being attacked by the FBI and Department of Justice for their anti-war and international solidarity efforts.

The text of the resolution against the 2012 NATO Summit adopted by Chicago Teachers Union follows:

“Whereas, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exists for the purpose of making war against nations and groups that the 1% deems at odds with its interests, and has been directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and

Whereas, public sector employees, reeling from reduced state and federal revenues due to economic contraction, war and tax cuts for the wealthy, have been especially hard hit; and

Whereas, NATO as a vestige of the cold war, continues to fight unjust wars throughout the world even though the cold war has ended; and

Whereas, military budgets and expenditures have taken money from education, social services, healthcare and other needed programs causing hardship to the American people and causing a loss of jobs;

Whereas, people should be put before profit; money should go to jobs, education, pension, healthcare, housing and the environment, not war;

Therefore Be It Resolved, that this body goes on record as expressing its opposition to the NATO summit being held in Chicago May 2012; and

Further Be It Resolved, that we call on our members to mobilize and join the planned permitted march to be held on May 20th 2012; and

Be it Finally Resolved, that CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators) submit a workshop proposal to the People’s Summit on May 12th-May 13th to education people on our vision and to unite with organizations and individuals who dissent from the global vision of NATO.”

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #UnitedElectricalWorkers #ChicagoTeachersUnion #NATOSummit #ServiceEmployeesInternationalUnionSEIU

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/major-unions-line-join-march-against-nato-summit Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:28:58 +0000 UE convention resolution supports civil liberties, condemns FBI repression https://fightbacknews.org/ue-convention-resolution-supports-civil-liberties-condemns-fbi-repression?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution from the 72nd National UE Convention, held Sept. 25-29. The resolution condemns the FBI and grand jury repression aimed at anti-war, labor and international solidarity activists and urges support for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. !--more-- Defend Our Civil Liberties Despite positioning himself as a supporter of civil liberties during the 2008 campaign, President Obama has chosen to largely embrace rather than reject the sweeping changes made during the Bush regime, including the so-called Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments, as well as executive orders and legal opinions. These greatly expanded the ability of government agencies to spy on and disrupt law-abiding residents and organizations in the U.S. UE has warned for years that when the government is given powers of domestic surveillance and “counterintelligence,” it can and will use them against ordinary, innocent Americans, particularly those who speak out against government policies, and especially those who represent a credible power base, such as the labor movement. We saw this during the McCarthy period in the 1940s and 1950s, when the combined forces of the federal government, big business, and their business-union co-conspirators nearly destroyed the UE and progressive trade unionism. Now the U.S. labor movement has again been targeted by government witch hunts. The Justice Department is interpreting laws prohibiting “material support” for terrorist organizations to include those who speak out on certain foreign policy issues and organize fact-finding missions, and even those who attempt to teach non-violent approaches to those who have engaged in violence in the past. This then led to an undemocratic grand jury investigation and eventually FBI raids in late 2010 on the homes of labor and peace activists who had organized non-violent protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Since some of those labor activists also supported the fight by UE Local 1174 members to stop Wells Fargo Bank from causing the closing of their plant in the Quad Cities, the FBI warned police in the Quad Cities of “dangerous” militants coming to their area, a ridiculous accusation since it involved a handful of union activists coming to show traditional labor solidarity. But it forced the local police department to greatly overreact, spending precious local tax dollars on large numbers of extra police while having a chilling effect on the ability of local citizens to exercise their right to protest against corporate bad behavior. Today, more Americans than ever are under government and corporate surveillance, and information about us is being shared widely among all levels of law enforcement, the military and with private entities. Law enforcement agencies are allowed to spy on and infiltrate organizations without any indication that a crime has been committed or is being planned; surveillance cameras are increasingly being used in the workplace, on city streets, and in other public spaces; and our telephone and email communications are being swept up en masse. Bureaucratic initiatives such as fusion centers (state, local, and regional law enforcement coordinating centers) and joint terrorism task forces are speeding the sharing of often false or illegally-obtained information. This will not protect us from future events like 9/11. The problem was not a lack of information but the failure to analyze and act upon existing information. The government obsession with gathering information on non-terrorist political opponents means there are fewer resources to combat real crime, including terrorism. Bosses try to instill fear in workers during union organizing campaigns – that is the kind of fear that the government has tried to spread across society as a whole. People may avoid anti-globalization rallies if they know they are under government surveillance. A union member will think twice about voicing their outrage on a picket line if they know they could face trumped-up terrorism charges. Fewer people attend organizing meetings if they suspect that someone in the room could be a police agent. It is clear that the fight to protect and regain civil liberties must continue regardless of which party controls the White House. A growing number of Americans also question the use of the death penalty. Why should working people who regularly express deep distrust of our government officialdom trust these same forces with the power to inflict the ultimate penalty of death? The question is especially crucial when a rising tide of evidence demonstrates our judicial system is stacked against those without money. When evidence such as DNA testing reveals death row prisoners are innocent, it confirms our justice system is fundamentally flawed. The question of capital punishment is historically of great concern to union members. On numerous occasions our government has framed and executed labor leaders. Among the more famous are the Haymarket martyrs, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leader Joe Hill, immigrant labor activists Sacco and Vanzetti, and the coal miners known as the Molly Maguires. Spared the death penalty only after massive campaigns to save them were Tom Mooney, who spoke to an early UE convention, and the legendary Big Bill Haywood. Attacks on civil liberties are not minor infringements on the rights of a few extremists. Today they affect a vast cross-section of Americans. The chilling effect of denials of our democratic freedoms curtails political debate within the U.S., limits the ability of all citizens to make democratic choices for the future of our country, and thereby undermines our livelihoods and living standards. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 72nd UE CONVENTION: Opposes any change in the federal criminal code that would undermine our basic rights to organize, strike, protest, demonstrate and otherwise defend the interests of working people, specifically including changes designed to make picket-line activity subject to federal prosecution; Urges all locals to actively defend the right to protest against government and corporate policies which hurt working people by working with and supporting organizations such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Defending Dissent Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression; Calls on public-sector locals to investigate and aggressively challenge any restrictions on their members’ civil liberties written into state law or municipal ordinances; Demands that Congress outlaw political spying and disruption by the FBI and other federal agencies, repeal the FISA amendment act, repeal or let sunset regressive parts of the Patriot Act, and pass legislation to roll back the worst excesses of the Bush regime by barring the use of secret evidence and restricting the use of the state secrets privilege and National Security Letters; Supports local initiatives to promote civil liberties by encouraging local governments to pass a Local Civil Rights Restoration Act 9 as part of the People’s Campaign for the Constitution and laws based on the First Amendments Rights and Police Standards Act of 2004 enacted by the Washington, DC city council, which recognizes demonstrations as critical to free speech and vital to democracy, and thus emphasizes negotiation and communication and prohibits preemptive arrests; Calls for legislation to prohibit random or blanket drug testing in the workplace as well as legislation to ban telephone and Internet monitoring of employees and to further restrict the use of lie detectors in employment; Opposes President Obama’s preventive detention proposal and Justice Department policies that allow for closed hearings, secret evidence, refusal to name those detained, elimination of attorney-client privilege, and long detentions without bond without any specific articulated reason; Supports legislation to abolish preventive detention and re-establish the right to bail and the concept of “innocent until proven guilty;” Demands that Congress reform the process for placing groups on terrorist lists to ensure that they have sufficient notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond to the charges against them, with necessary checks and balances on executive discretion, while also reforming the prohibition on material support to protect free speech, association, peace building and the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians; Supports legislation to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, supports strong whistle blower protection legislation, and opposes efforts to intimidate or bar the press and other news media from reporting on government activities; Supports repeal of McCarthy-era “speech crimes” laws, including the Smith Act and the Subversive Activities Control Act and opposes exclusion of foreigners based on political beliefs or memberships; Supports the abolition of the death penalty. #UnitedStates #Labor #civilLiberties #UnitedElectricalWorkers #September24FBIRaids #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #PoliticalRepression div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution from the 72nd National UE Convention, held Sept. 25-29. The resolution condemns the FBI and grand jury repression aimed at anti-war, labor and international solidarity activists and urges support for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

Defend Our Civil Liberties

Despite positioning himself as a supporter of civil liberties during the 2008 campaign, President Obama has chosen to largely embrace rather than reject the sweeping changes made during the Bush regime, including the so-called Patriot Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) amendments, as well as executive orders and legal opinions. These greatly expanded the ability of government agencies to spy on and disrupt law-abiding residents and organizations in the U.S.

UE has warned for years that when the government is given powers of domestic surveillance and “counterintelligence,” it can and will use them against ordinary, innocent Americans, particularly those who speak out against government policies, and especially those who represent a credible power base, such as the labor movement. We saw this during the McCarthy period in the 1940s and 1950s, when the combined forces of the federal government, big business, and their business-union co-conspirators nearly destroyed the UE and progressive trade unionism.

Now the U.S. labor movement has again been targeted by government witch hunts. The Justice Department is interpreting laws prohibiting “material support” for terrorist organizations to include those who speak out on certain foreign policy issues and organize fact-finding missions, and even those who attempt to teach non-violent approaches to those who have engaged in violence in the past. This then led to an undemocratic grand jury investigation and eventually FBI raids in late 2010 on the homes of labor and peace activists who had organized non-violent protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Since some of those labor activists also supported the fight by UE Local 1174 members to stop Wells Fargo Bank from causing the closing of their plant in the Quad Cities, the FBI warned police in the Quad Cities of “dangerous” militants coming to their area, a ridiculous accusation since it involved a handful of union activists coming to show traditional labor solidarity. But it forced the local police department to greatly overreact, spending precious local tax dollars on large numbers of extra police while having a chilling effect on the ability of local citizens to exercise their right to protest against corporate bad behavior.

Today, more Americans than ever are under government and corporate surveillance, and information about us is being shared widely among all levels of law enforcement, the military and with private entities. Law enforcement agencies are allowed to spy on and infiltrate organizations without any indication that a crime has been committed or is being planned; surveillance cameras are increasingly being used in the workplace, on city streets, and in other public spaces; and our telephone and email communications are being swept up en masse. Bureaucratic initiatives such as fusion centers (state, local, and regional law enforcement coordinating centers) and joint terrorism task forces are speeding the sharing of often false or illegally-obtained information.

This will not protect us from future events like 9/11. The problem was not a lack of information but the failure to analyze and act upon existing information. The government obsession with gathering information on non-terrorist political opponents means there are fewer resources to combat real crime, including terrorism.

Bosses try to instill fear in workers during union organizing campaigns – that is the kind of fear that the government has tried to spread across society as a whole. People may avoid anti-globalization rallies if they know they are under government surveillance. A union member will think twice about voicing their outrage on a picket line if they know they could face trumped-up terrorism charges. Fewer people attend organizing meetings if they suspect that someone in the room could be a police agent.

It is clear that the fight to protect and regain civil liberties must continue regardless of which party controls the White House.

A growing number of Americans also question the use of the death penalty. Why should working people who regularly express deep distrust of our government officialdom trust these same forces with the power to inflict the ultimate penalty of death? The question is especially crucial when a rising tide of evidence demonstrates our judicial system is stacked against those without money. When evidence such as DNA testing reveals death row prisoners are innocent, it confirms our justice system is fundamentally flawed. The question of capital punishment is historically of great concern to union members. On numerous occasions our government has framed and executed labor leaders. Among the more famous are the Haymarket martyrs, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) leader Joe Hill, immigrant labor activists Sacco and Vanzetti, and the coal miners known as the Molly Maguires. Spared the death penalty only after massive campaigns to save them were Tom Mooney, who spoke to an early UE convention, and the legendary Big Bill Haywood.

Attacks on civil liberties are not minor infringements on the rights of a few extremists. Today they affect a vast cross-section of Americans. The chilling effect of denials of our democratic freedoms curtails political debate within the U.S., limits the ability of all citizens to make democratic choices for the future of our country, and thereby undermines our livelihoods and living standards.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THIS 72nd UE CONVENTION:

Opposes any change in the federal criminal code that would undermine our basic rights to organize, strike, protest, demonstrate and otherwise defend the interests of working people, specifically including changes designed to make picket-line activity subject to federal prosecution;

Urges all locals to actively defend the right to protest against government and corporate policies which hurt working people by working with and supporting organizations such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Defending Dissent Foundation, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression;

Calls on public-sector locals to investigate and aggressively challenge any restrictions on their members’ civil liberties written into state law or municipal ordinances;

Demands that Congress outlaw political spying and disruption by the FBI and other federal agencies, repeal the FISA amendment act, repeal or let sunset regressive parts of the Patriot Act, and pass legislation to roll back the worst excesses of the Bush regime by barring the use of secret evidence and restricting the use of the state secrets privilege and National Security Letters;

Supports local initiatives to promote civil liberties by encouraging local governments to pass a Local Civil Rights Restoration Act 9 as part of the People’s Campaign for the Constitution and laws based on the First Amendments Rights and Police Standards Act of 2004 enacted by the Washington, DC city council, which recognizes demonstrations as critical to free speech and vital to democracy, and thus emphasizes negotiation and communication and prohibits preemptive arrests;

Calls for legislation to prohibit random or blanket drug testing in the workplace as well as legislation to ban telephone and Internet monitoring of employees and to further restrict the use of lie detectors in employment;

Opposes President Obama’s preventive detention proposal and Justice Department policies that allow for closed hearings, secret evidence, refusal to name those detained, elimination of attorney-client privilege, and long detentions without bond without any specific articulated reason;

Supports legislation to abolish preventive detention and re-establish the right to bail and the concept of “innocent until proven guilty;”

Demands that Congress reform the process for placing groups on terrorist lists to ensure that they have sufficient notice and a meaningful opportunity to respond to the charges against them, with necessary checks and balances on executive discretion, while also reforming the prohibition on material support to protect free speech, association, peace building and the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians;

Supports legislation to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, supports strong whistle blower protection legislation, and opposes efforts to intimidate or bar the press and other news media from reporting on government activities;

Supports repeal of McCarthy-era “speech crimes” laws, including the Smith Act and the Subversive Activities Control Act and opposes exclusion of foreigners based on political beliefs or memberships;

Supports the abolition of the death penalty.

#UnitedStates #Labor #civilLiberties #UnitedElectricalWorkers #September24FBIRaids #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #PoliticalRepression

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/ue-convention-resolution-supports-civil-liberties-condemns-fbi-repression Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:40:44 +0000 FBI Repression: United Electrical workers (UE) demands: “Immediately halt these grand jury proceedings” https://fightbacknews.org/united-electrical-workers-ue-demands-immediately-halt-these-grand-jury-proceedings?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement adopted by the General Executive Board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. In part the statement deals with a 2009 incident at Rock Island, Illinois. The FBI attempted to disrupt the struggle that was being waged by workers at Quad City Die Casting, by slandering trade unionists who were mobilizing support for their effort. !--more-- The resolution states, “The police chief loudly complained that he’d been forced to overreact because the FBI had alerted him that members of other unions coming to support the UE action were ‘dangerous.’ These supposedly ‘dangerous’ people included Joe Iosbaker and other unionists who were later targets of the FBI’s September 2010 raids.” GEB Statement on Recent Attacks on Civil Liberties On September 24, 2010, the FBI carried out coordinated raids on the homes and offices of fourteen anti-war activists in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan. During the raids, the FBI confiscated everything from computers and mailing lists to children’s drawings and photos of Martin Luther King. Ten of the fourteen victims of the raids are union members in good standing. Many have years of experience leading the fight for labor rights. Joe Iosbaker, whose house was raided in Chicago, is chief steward at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the SEIU Local 73 executive board. Joe is a friend of UE and was active in support of Local 1110’s occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors plant in December 2008. (He can be seen speaking at the plant in the UE video “Hasta la Victoria!” passionately shouting that while the banks got bailed out, “…we got sold out!”) During the September 24 raids, FBI agents served subpoenas on activists, compelling them to testify before a grand jury in Chicago. Those called to testify are not allowed legal representation during their testimony. If they refuse to cooperate, they face imprisonment, jeopardizing their jobs, homes and families. If they agree to testify, they give credence to an illegitimate fishing expedition. All have refused to testify. Prosecutors have long misused the grand jury process to harass progressive activists. During the 1960s and 1970s, prosecutors used grand juries to distract and threaten activists in the movements against the Vietnam War and for civil rights. These raids are part of an alarming trend to criminalize dissent in the U.S. Four days prior to the September 24 raids, the Office of the Inspector General of the United States revealed that the FBI has systematically and illegally spied on political activists; that FBI director Robert Mueller had lied to Congress about details of the surveillance; and that agents frequently confuse civil disobedience with “domestic terrorism.” Such repression extends beyond the federal level. Other news reports last September revealed that the state of Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security had paid over $100,000 to a private “intelligence” contractor based in Israel – the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response – to spy on Pennsylvania organizations engaged in peaceful protest and other lawful activities. The state homeland security office issued over 130 bulletins to local law enforcement agencies reporting on lawful activities that it labeled as potential “terrorist threats” or “risks to homeland security.” The more than 200 groups targeted in these spy reports included churches, synagogues, peace, women’s and environmental groups, YWCAs, Jobs with Justice, and five labor unions – including UE. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell immediately halted this program when he learned of it. Fear-mongering attacks on legitimate protest, in the name of “homeland security” and “counterterrorism”, have harmful consequences for unions. In 2009 UE Local 1174 fought bravely but unsuccessfully to prevent the closing of Quad Cities Die Casting, which was put out of business by Well Fargo Bank’s decision to cut off the company’s credit. One of the local’s actions that summer was a protest at Wells Fargo’s Rock Island branch at which some people planned to engage in civil disobedience by blocking traffic, to dramatize how the bank was blocking economic recovery. The union notified the local police of its plans, but when UE people arrived they found a massive police presence far beyond what the situation required. The police chief loudly complained that he’d been forced to overreact because the FBI had alerted him that members of other unions coming to support the UE action were “dangerous.” These supposedly “dangerous” people included Joe Iosbaker and other unionists who were later targets of the FBI’s September 2010 raids. From the Industrial Workers of the World’s (IWW) fight for free speech in the 1910s to the major labor-inspired civil liberties court decisions of the 1930s, the labor movement has often been in the forefront of defending the right to speak and protest. Unionists have understood that without the ability to speak out, union efforts would be crushed. The defense of civil liberties has long been a high priority for UE. Our own union’s history has taught us that infringement on basic freedoms is a matter of life and death to the workers’ movement. During the “red scare” of the late 1940s and the 1950s, the combined forces of the corporations, the federal government, both major political parties, the media, and opportunistic business unions nearly succeeded in destroying UE and crushing progressive trade unionism. Because of the persecution that our union suffered and barely survived in that era, we in UE have a continuing obligation to speak out forcefully whenever civil liberties are endangered by political hysteria and repression. A growing number of trade unionists are speaking out against these attacks on civil liberties. The convention of AFSCME Council 5, representing public employees in Minnesota, passed a strong resolution comparing these raids to past attacks on the constitutional rights of labor and civil rights movements. Central labor councils in San Francisco, Duluth, San Jose, and Troy, New York have also passed resolutions condemning the raids, as have a number of local unions. THEREFORE, this General Executive Board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), meeting in Pittsburgh on January 27-28, 2011, condemns these attacks on constitutional liberties. We call on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately halt these grand jury proceedings; to order FBI and Justice Department personnel to return all property improperly seized in last September’s FBI raids on peace activists; to order an immediate investigation into the circumstances, motivation and propriety of the judicial and police intimidation of union members and others; and to end the repression of peace, international solidarity and labor organizations and activists. We further call on the United States Senate to investigate post-9/11 federal surveillance of labor, peace and other legitimate organizations and movements, and the use of expansive anti-terror laws to intimidate and criminalize peaceful dissent. #UnitedStates #InJusticeSystem #Labor #UnitedElectricalWorkers #September24FBIRaids div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement adopted by the General Executive Board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. In part the statement deals with a 2009 incident at Rock Island, Illinois. The FBI attempted to disrupt the struggle that was being waged by workers at Quad City Die Casting, by slandering trade unionists who were mobilizing support for their effort.

The resolution states, “The police chief loudly complained that he’d been forced to overreact because the FBI had alerted him that members of other unions coming to support the UE action were ‘dangerous.’ These supposedly ‘dangerous’ people included Joe Iosbaker and other unionists who were later targets of the FBI’s September 2010 raids.”

GEB Statement on Recent Attacks on Civil Liberties

On September 24, 2010, the FBI carried out coordinated raids on the homes and offices of fourteen anti-war activists in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan. During the raids, the FBI confiscated everything from computers and mailing lists to children’s drawings and photos of Martin Luther King.

Ten of the fourteen victims of the raids are union members in good standing. Many have years of experience leading the fight for labor rights. Joe Iosbaker, whose house was raided in Chicago, is chief steward at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the SEIU Local 73 executive board. Joe is a friend of UE and was active in support of Local 1110’s occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors plant in December 2008. (He can be seen speaking at the plant in the UE video “Hasta la Victoria!” passionately shouting that while the banks got bailed out, “…we got sold out!”)

During the September 24 raids, FBI agents served subpoenas on activists, compelling them to testify before a grand jury in Chicago. Those called to testify are not allowed legal representation during their testimony. If they refuse to cooperate, they face imprisonment, jeopardizing their jobs, homes and families. If they agree to testify, they give credence to an illegitimate fishing expedition. All have refused to testify. Prosecutors have long misused the grand jury process to harass progressive activists. During the 1960s and 1970s, prosecutors used grand juries to distract and threaten activists in the movements against the Vietnam War and for civil rights.

These raids are part of an alarming trend to criminalize dissent in the U.S. Four days prior to the September 24 raids, the Office of the Inspector General of the United States revealed that the FBI has systematically and illegally spied on political activists; that FBI director Robert Mueller had lied to Congress about details of the surveillance; and that agents frequently confuse civil disobedience with “domestic terrorism.”

Such repression extends beyond the federal level. Other news reports last September revealed that the state of Pennsylvania’s Office of Homeland Security had paid over $100,000 to a private “intelligence” contractor based in Israel – the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response – to spy on Pennsylvania organizations engaged in peaceful protest and other lawful activities. The state homeland security office issued over 130 bulletins to local law enforcement agencies reporting on lawful activities that it labeled as potential “terrorist threats” or “risks to homeland security.” The more than 200 groups targeted in these spy reports included churches, synagogues, peace, women’s and environmental groups, YWCAs, Jobs with Justice, and five labor unions – including UE. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell immediately halted this program when he learned of it.

Fear-mongering attacks on legitimate protest, in the name of “homeland security” and “counterterrorism”, have harmful consequences for unions. In 2009 UE Local 1174 fought bravely but unsuccessfully to prevent the closing of Quad Cities Die Casting, which was put out of business by Well Fargo Bank’s decision to cut off the company’s credit. One of the local’s actions that summer was a protest at Wells Fargo’s Rock Island branch at which some people planned to engage in civil disobedience by blocking traffic, to dramatize how the bank was blocking economic recovery. The union notified the local police of its plans, but when UE people arrived they found a massive police presence far beyond what the situation required. The police chief loudly complained that he’d been forced to overreact because the FBI had alerted him that members of other unions coming to support the UE action were “dangerous.” These supposedly “dangerous” people included Joe Iosbaker and other unionists who were later targets of the FBI’s September 2010 raids.

From the Industrial Workers of the World’s (IWW) fight for free speech in the 1910s to the major labor-inspired civil liberties court decisions of the 1930s, the labor movement has often been in the forefront of defending the right to speak and protest. Unionists have understood that without the ability to speak out, union efforts would be crushed.

The defense of civil liberties has long been a high priority for UE. Our own union’s history has taught us that infringement on basic freedoms is a matter of life and death to the workers’ movement. During the “red scare” of the late 1940s and the 1950s, the combined forces of the corporations, the federal government, both major political parties, the media, and opportunistic business unions nearly succeeded in destroying UE and crushing progressive trade unionism. Because of the persecution that our union suffered and barely survived in that era, we in UE have a continuing obligation to speak out forcefully whenever civil liberties are endangered by political hysteria and repression.

A growing number of trade unionists are speaking out against these attacks on civil liberties. The convention of AFSCME Council 5, representing public employees in Minnesota, passed a strong resolution comparing these raids to past attacks on the constitutional rights of labor and civil rights movements. Central labor councils in San Francisco, Duluth, San Jose, and Troy, New York have also passed resolutions condemning the raids, as have a number of local unions.

THEREFORE, this General Executive Board of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), meeting in Pittsburgh on January 27-28, 2011, condemns these attacks on constitutional liberties.

We call on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately halt these grand jury proceedings; to order FBI and Justice Department personnel to return all property improperly seized in last September’s FBI raids on peace activists; to order an immediate investigation into the circumstances, motivation and propriety of the judicial and police intimidation of union members and others; and to end the repression of peace, international solidarity and labor organizations and activists.

We further call on the United States Senate to investigate post-9/11 federal surveillance of labor, peace and other legitimate organizations and movements, and the use of expansive anti-terror laws to intimidate and criminalize peaceful dissent.

#UnitedStates #InJusticeSystem #Labor #UnitedElectricalWorkers #September24FBIRaids

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/united-electrical-workers-ue-demands-immediately-halt-these-grand-jury-proceedings Thu, 03 Feb 2011 04:07:12 +0000 Support Grows for Republic Windows Occupation https://fightbacknews.org/support-grows-for-republic-window-occupation?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles speaks at Fight Back! event Chicago, IL - Saturday, Dec. 6 brought more inspiration from workers at Republic Windows and Doors who are occupying their plant in Chicago. The workers’ union, Local 1110 of the United Electrical workers (UE), held a rally at noon outside the plant doors. By then, the workers’ militant action had already become international news. !--more-- Lalo Muñoz, a worker in the plant for 34 years spoke to the rally and explained that they had just been given notice on Tuesday that the plant would close Friday. The company had no plans to pay them the 75 days pay required in the Illinois WARN Act, nor their sick pay or vacation pay, and their health insurance would end immediately. Behind him were other occupying workers with blankets wrapped around them to protect them from the below zero temperatures. Reverend CJ Hawking from the Interfaith Committee on Workers’ Issues called up speaker after speaker to express the importance of the plant occupation for all workers across the U.S. Teamsters Local 743 President Richard Berg, AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Larry Spivak, SEIU Local 73 executive board member Joe Iosbaker, Michelle Aymold, an officer with the Graduate Employees Organization at UIC, Moises Zavala from UFCW, Martin Unzueta from The Chicago Workers Collaborative and Jobs with Justice director James Thindwa called these 260 workers true heroes. Leaders from the United Electrical workers, Carl Rosen and Leah Fried, explained that the workers were told that Bank of America would not loan the company money. Bank of America denied the loan despite the $25 billion taxpayer bailout the bank had recently received. The 200 person crowd assembled on hours notice chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!” By the end of the rally, Congressman Luis Gutierrez promised to stick with them until they got justice. People left with concrete plans to return to the 1333 N Hickory Street factory with food, supplies, money, endorsements and ready to get more people for the planned Monday and Tuesday events. Local 1110 President Armando Robles and his family spent the late afternoon explaining to Chicago activists the details and history of their struggle. As he walked into the packed room at the 17th annual People’s Thanksgiving fundraising dinner for Fight Back! newspaper, the ecstatic crowd chanted “Si se puede!” The room included people from the disability rights group Access Living, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Southside Together Organized for Power, Sector Latino, the activist fan club of the Chicago Fire, SDS, Palestine Solidarity Group, National Lawyers Guild, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism, and even the staff of the Venezuelan Consulate. The crowd made it clear that the workers’ action on Friday had inspired folks far beyond the traditional labor movement. The fundraising bags circulating the room were filled as people came forward to put in $100 donations. After the event a group of 25 people drove to the factory to personally deliver the $1500 raised. By late night the factory had numerous TV trucks parked outside and was busy with Mexican community members bringing in large silver pots of homemade soup through the barricaded front doors of the main plant filled with expensive equipment and merchandise. The workers had already developed their own food, housekeeping, security and media committees. Vicente Rangel, a union steward with 15 years in the plant, was on his way to a live CNN interview. Next steps Sunday morning, Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH met with the workers in the plant cafeteria and stated his intention to press Bank of America to reinstate Republic’s line of credit. UE has set up a website for this as well: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica A labor rally will be held at the factory door on Monday, Dec. 8 at noon, called by Chicago Federation of Labor president Dennis Gannon and SEIU state council head, Tom Balanoff. The next negotiations between the company, the bank, Local 1110 and Representative Gutierrez will take place on Monday, Dec. 8 at 4:00 pm. If the company does not agree to the workers’ demands for justice, the occupation will continue. The workers will rally on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at noon in front of the Bank of America, 231 South LaSalle Street in Chicago. #ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #News #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles speaks at Fight Back! event

Chicago, IL – Saturday, Dec. 6 brought more inspiration from workers at Republic Windows and Doors who are occupying their plant in Chicago. The workers’ union, Local 1110 of the United Electrical workers (UE), held a rally at noon outside the plant doors. By then, the workers’ militant action had already become international news.

Lalo Muñoz, a worker in the plant for 34 years spoke to the rally and explained that they had just been given notice on Tuesday that the plant would close Friday. The company had no plans to pay them the 75 days pay required in the Illinois WARN Act, nor their sick pay or vacation pay, and their health insurance would end immediately. Behind him were other occupying workers with blankets wrapped around them to protect them from the below zero temperatures.

Reverend CJ Hawking from the Interfaith Committee on Workers’ Issues called up speaker after speaker to express the importance of the plant occupation for all workers across the U.S. Teamsters Local 743 President Richard Berg, AFSCME Council 31 Executive Director Larry Spivak, SEIU Local 73 executive board member Joe Iosbaker, Michelle Aymold, an officer with the Graduate Employees Organization at UIC, Moises Zavala from UFCW, Martin Unzueta from The Chicago Workers Collaborative and Jobs with Justice director James Thindwa called these 260 workers true heroes.

Leaders from the United Electrical workers, Carl Rosen and Leah Fried, explained that the workers were told that Bank of America would not loan the company money. Bank of America denied the loan despite the $25 billion taxpayer bailout the bank had recently received. The 200 person crowd assembled on hours notice chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!”

By the end of the rally, Congressman Luis Gutierrez promised to stick with them until they got justice. People left with concrete plans to return to the 1333 N Hickory Street factory with food, supplies, money, endorsements and ready to get more people for the planned Monday and Tuesday events.

Local 1110 President Armando Robles and his family spent the late afternoon explaining to Chicago activists the details and history of their struggle. As he walked into the packed room at the 17th annual People’s Thanksgiving fundraising dinner for Fight Back! newspaper, the ecstatic crowd chanted “Si se puede!”

The room included people from the disability rights group Access Living, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Southside Together Organized for Power, Sector Latino, the activist fan club of the Chicago Fire, SDS, Palestine Solidarity Group, National Lawyers Guild, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism, and even the staff of the Venezuelan Consulate.

The crowd made it clear that the workers’ action on Friday had inspired folks far beyond the traditional labor movement. The fundraising bags circulating the room were filled as people came forward to put in $100 donations. After the event a group of 25 people drove to the factory to personally deliver the $1500 raised.

By late night the factory had numerous TV trucks parked outside and was busy with Mexican community members bringing in large silver pots of homemade soup through the barricaded front doors of the main plant filled with expensive equipment and merchandise. The workers had already developed their own food, housekeeping, security and media committees. Vicente Rangel, a union steward with 15 years in the plant, was on his way to a live CNN interview.

Next steps

Sunday morning, Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH met with the workers in the plant cafeteria and stated his intention to press Bank of America to reinstate Republic’s line of credit. UE has set up a website for this as well: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica

A labor rally will be held at the factory door on Monday, Dec. 8 at noon, called by Chicago Federation of Labor president Dennis Gannon and SEIU state council head, Tom Balanoff.

The next negotiations between the company, the bank, Local 1110 and Representative Gutierrez will take place on Monday, Dec. 8 at 4:00 pm. If the company does not agree to the workers’ demands for justice, the occupation will continue. The workers will rally on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at noon in front of the Bank of America, 231 South LaSalle Street in Chicago.

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #News #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/support-grows-for-republic-window-occupation Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:47:16 +0000 Video of rally in support of Republic Windows plant occupation https://fightbacknews.org/video-of-rally-in-support-of-windows-plant-occupation?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Chicago, IL - The videos below are of the Dec. 6 Chicago rally is support of the workers occupying the Republic Windows factory. This important struggle is drawing support from workers across the country. #ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers #takeover div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Chicago, IL – The videos below are of the Dec. 6 Chicago rally is support of the workers occupying the Republic Windows factory. This important struggle is drawing support from workers across the country.

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers #takeover

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/video-of-rally-in-support-of-windows-plant-occupation Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:34:51 +0000 Chicago: Workers occupy plant https://fightbacknews.org/chicago-workers-occupy-plant?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Chicago, IL - The cafeteria at Republic Windows Factory on the North West side of Chicago was filled with workers tonight, Dec. 5. In a militant action, they have taken over and occupied the block-long building still filled with expensive merchandise and equipment. The 200 workers have been told that their plant is closing but have not been paid by the guidelines set forth in the WARN Act. It is estimated that the workers are owed $1million. The courageous workers insist that they get paid before the assets are removed from the expansive plant. They are especially outraged that the very Bank of America that claims it can not pay the Republic workers is the bank that received $25 billion in the last U.S. bail out! !--more-- The mostly Latino employees, who are members of United Electrical workers, have worked at Republic - some for over 30 years - and are not even being compensated with continued health insurance or the holiday and sick pay already owed them. They are also legally due wages for 60 more days after the announced closing today. Vicente Rangel, a United Electrical workers steward and a worker for 15 years in the maintenance division said tonight, “We are sending a message to all the workers in America. We will try to keep the fight and we ask for your support.” The workers chanted, “Sí se puede!” when they got news updates or solidarity visitors and made plans to stay up all night and prepare for a noon vigil on Saturday as well as a meeting with management and the bank representatives promised for Monday. As the word spread quickly today, plans were put in place for a Tuesday, Dec. 9 rally if their demands are not met. #ChicagoIL #News #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Chicago, IL – The cafeteria at Republic Windows Factory on the North West side of Chicago was filled with workers tonight, Dec. 5. In a militant action, they have taken over and occupied the block-long building still filled with expensive merchandise and equipment. The 200 workers have been told that their plant is closing but have not been paid by the guidelines set forth in the WARN Act. It is estimated that the workers are owed $1million. The courageous workers insist that they get paid before the assets are removed from the expansive plant. They are especially outraged that the very Bank of America that claims it can not pay the Republic workers is the bank that received $25 billion in the last U.S. bail out!

The mostly Latino employees, who are members of United Electrical workers, have worked at Republic – some for over 30 years – and are not even being compensated with continued health insurance or the holiday and sick pay already owed them. They are also legally due wages for 60 more days after the announced closing today.

Vicente Rangel, a United Electrical workers steward and a worker for 15 years in the maintenance division said tonight, “We are sending a message to all the workers in America. We will try to keep the fight and we ask for your support.”

The workers chanted, “Sí se puede!” when they got news updates or solidarity visitors and made plans to stay up all night and prepare for a noon vigil on Saturday as well as a meeting with management and the bank representatives promised for Monday. As the word spread quickly today, plans were put in place for a Tuesday, Dec. 9 rally if their demands are not met.

#ChicagoIL #News #ChicanoLatino #RepublicWindowsAndDoors #UELocal1110 #UnitedElectricalWorkers

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/chicago-workers-occupy-plant Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:31:50 +0000