In a historic transfer, the United Auto Workers grew to become the biggest labor union to advocate for a everlasting cease-fire within the ongoing Israel-Hamas battle.
The announcement was made Friday by UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla, alongside protesters on the fifth day of a starvation strike held exterior the White House. The protest had drawn appearances from notable figures comparable to actress Cynthia Nixon and Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush.
“UAW International is calling for an immediate, permanent cease-fire in Israel and Palestine so that we can get to the work of building a lasting peace, building social justice, and building a global community of solidarity,” Mancilla stated.
The name for a cease-fire and the need to construct a world neighborhood of solidarity “is as important as anything else that we’re doing in this country in order to ensure that workers and oppressed people and poor people across the world are on the path to winning the justice that they so deserve,” Mancilla stated.
Mancilla added in a message shared on X, previously often known as Twitter, that the International Executive Board of UAW can be forming a working group to review the historical past of the area and their union’s financial ties to the battle.
“I am proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the @UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” UAW president Shawn Fain posted on X, echoing Mancilla’s sentiment.
Other labor organizations have supported a cease-fire as properly, together with the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU).
“We unreservedly condemn the Hamas violence of October 7, which killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians and saw the kidnapping of more than 200 people. However, Israel’s response has made the prospects for peace more remote. Over 10,000 innocent civilians, including 4,000 children, have been killed by the relentless and indiscriminate bombing campaign on Gaza. Israel has shut off the flow of food, water, fuel and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, a war crime. A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding every day in Gaza. Thousands more innocent civilians stand to die wholly preventable deaths,” the APWU said of their press launch, citing numbers supplied by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
The UAW ended a six-week strike on Oct. 30 following tentative labor agreements with the Detroit Big 3 automobile producers. President Biden joined the picket line with UAW staff in September, in an unprecedented present of solidarity from a sitting president.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-gaza-war-united-auto-workers-cease-fire/