For more information contact:
Jonathan Kissam, UE Communications Director
(802) 343 1745 | jkissam@ueunion.org
In two statements released this morning, UE’s General Executive Board, which is meeting in Pittsburgh, denounced Trump’s “government of billionaires” and called for continued pressure on Israel in order to achieve a “just and lasting peace in Palestine.”
The board states that “Since Donald Trump assumed the Presidency on January 20, he has issued a flurry of executive orders which will both directly cut living standards for working people and make it harder for us to organize and fight to improve our working and living conditions.” The statement details the Trump administration’s actions to hobble the National Labor Relations Board, cut funding for public and nonprofit services that working people rely on, and divide the working class through attacks on immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, Black/African Americans, other people of color, and all who disagree with them.
The board also notes that “The actions of Trump and his billionaire supporters have already begun to generate popular resistance, and we can expect to see more. The labor movement needs to play a key role in channeling that anger into an effective fightback. And in order to best fight for a better future for working people, we will need to develop a political organization, such as a labor party, that is independent of the Democratic Party.”
In a second statement, the board states that “it is imperative to keep pressure on the U.S. government to ensure that the ceasefire is made permanent, that reconstruction of Gaza is adequately funded, and that the Israeli government end its occupation of the West Bank and its threats and military aggression against other countries in the region.”
The board also reaffirms that “UE intends to continue to play our historic role in advocating for an independent foreign policy for labor; for peace on the basis of equality, democracy, and human rights for the Palestinian and Israeli people; and for Palestinian self-determination.”
The UE General Executive Board consists of 16 elected rank-and-file members from the union’s two geographic regions, along with the three elected national officers.
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