In between UE conventions, the elected General Executive Board and national officers issue statements applying UE policy to specific issues of the day. UE policy is set by rank-and-file delegates to our biennial national convention.
White supremacists and neo-Nazi organizers emboldened by Trump’s presidency see the Trump era as their time and Trump has done absolutely nothing to discourage them. UE condemns the attack on Charlottesville VA and promises to continue organizing in our workplaces and communities to fight racism, fascism and bigotry.
At its quarterly meeting the UE General Executive Board adopted the following statement on the Trump administration's plans to renegotiate NAFTA.
RENEGOTIATION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (NAFTA)
United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
The election of Donald Trump, while very disturbing, should not come as a complete shock. For the past several decades the political establishment in both parties has advanced a set of policies known as neoliberalism that has made life harder for working people. Neoliberalism includes free trade, deregulation, privatization, and dismantling the social safety net, and it has been pursued aggressively by Republican administrations since Reagan, and Democratic administrations starting with Bill Clinton. This election year brought rebellion in both parties against what Bernie Sanders called “establishment politics and establishment economics.” That rebellion took the form, in the Democratic primaries, of the inclusive progressive populism of Sanders, and on the Republican side, the authoritarian, bigoted populism of Trump.
At its September 22-23 meeting at the union's national headquarters in Pittsburgh, UE's General Executive Board discussed and adopted the following statement on the 2016 presidential election.
UE General Executive Board Statement on the 2016 Presidential Election
The UE National Officers today issued the following statement in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux people of North Dakota in their struggle to protect their land and water from the oil industry.
UE joins others in the labor movement in condemning the ongoing violent attacks on the Standing Rock Sioux nation and others who oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline. These attacks by a private security company bring back horrific memories of the notorious Pinkertons, who used clubs, dogs and bullets to break up peaceful worker protests.
At its meet at UE's national headquarters in late May, the union's General Executive Board adopted a resolution opposing the ongoing coup against the democratic pro-labor government of Brazil.
UE OFFICERS' STATEMENT ON VENZUELA
On March 9 President Obama issued an executive order that declared “a national emergency” because, it said, Venezuela is an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” The executive order imposed sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials whom the White House accuses of “undermin(ing) democratic processes or institutions,” “violence or abuse of human rights,” undermining freedom of expression, and/or “public corruption.”
The UE General Executive Board, in its triannual meeting September 18-19 in Pittsburgh, adopted the following statement on the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri.
Ferguson Affects Us All
UE activists are joining members of labor, civil rights, religious and community groups around the country in expressing outrage over what transpired in Missouri. Members of Local 150, UE's statewide organization in North Carolina, have participated in prayer vigils, protests and public discussions. UE members have been active in other states as well.
Delegates to UE’s 73rd National Convention in August 2013 reaffirmed UE’s longstanding concern about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and reiterated our union’s view that the U.S. government policy in this conflict has made matters worse. On the basis of our union’s principles and policies, we urgently call for an end to the bloodbath that is now occurring in Gaza.
In the resolution “For Peace, Jobs and a Pro-Worker Foreign Policy,” last year’s UE convention said in part: