Statement of the UE officers
The current move by President Biden and Congress to impose a contract on our nation’s 115,000 railroad workers — a contract that the members of rail unions representing the majority of those workers have rejected — is an unconscionable attack on rail workers, the labor movement, and the entire U.S. working class.
As young workers are re-energizing the U.S. labor movement, young voters turned out in record numbers in this year’s midterm elections, turning an expected “red wave” of anti-worker Republican victories into a mere trickle.
Defying both expectations and historical patterns (the party that controls the presidency almost always loses a large number of seats in Congress during midterm elections), Republicans were unable to take full control of Congress. Perhaps more importantly, a slate of secretary of state candidates who had pledged to use their control of electoral machinery to engineer a Republican victory in the 2024 presidential election — regardless of how voters vote — went down to defeat in all but one state, Indiana.
UE members speak out on the importance of the midterm elections: “It’s important for working people to vote because we’re kind of on a precipice.” “We must no longer vote for party but vote for candidates who will advance policies that will benefit the people.” “As a female who has had her right to bodily autonomy arbitrarily and recklessly taken away after so many fought for so many years for that same right, it is vitally important to show up at the polls and vote.”
Statement of the UE General Executive Board
The situation working people find ourselves in as we approach the midterm elections — a cost-of-living crisis, broken labor law, and assaults on our rights and liberties — requires decisive action from our government. However, we are prevented from exercising democratic control over our society and economy by a corrupt two-party system that is fueled by corporate cash, and enabled by divisions among working people and increasing cynicism about democracy itself.
The UE Congressional Scorecard is back! To score the members of the 117th Congress, we rated them based on UE policy, which is debated and adopted by rank-and-file delegates at UE conventions. Current policy is based on resolutions passed by the 77th UE Convention, held in September 2021, and attended by over 100 delegates from UE locals across the country.
Summer Lee, a strong UE ally and champion of the working class, won the Democratic primary for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 12th District on May 17. The hard-fought campaign saw millions of dollars of out-of-state “dark money” pouring into the state in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to defeat her.
Medicare — the enormously popular government insurance system which has provided healthcare for our nation’s elderly population for over fifty years — could be effectively handed over to Wall Street within less than a decade, thanks to an under-the-radar program called “REACH.” Call your member of Congress today at (202) 224-3121, and tell them to take action to stop REACH.
In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed nearly one million American lives – more than one third of which have been linked to a lack of health insurance – Senantor Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and fourteen other Senators introduced the Medicare for All Act of 2022 on May 12. The bill will guarantee health care to everyone in the United States as a fundamental human right.
UE condemns the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. It is an indefensible attack on the right of women and pregnant people to control their own bodies, one of the most fundamental of liberties. Furthermore, the opinion, which overturns a half century of settled law, signals that this unelected group of six right-wing justices sees none of our rights as untouchable.
In a letter sent to UE locals at the beginning of the month, UE’s national officers encouraged all UE locals to mobilize for the June 18 Moral March on Washington to demand that elected officials meet the needs of the working class. The march will be led by Rev. Dr. William Barber II, a longtime ally who has spoken at UE conventions and supported the work of UE locals.