Workers Here Have More in Common With Palestinians Being Bombed Than the Billionaires Bombing Them
Even beyond the prospects of a ceasefire, the United Electrical Workers are calling for an end to US military aid to Israel—and why other unions should be working towards the same thing.
Carl Rosen, Andrew Dinkelaker and Mark Meinster
Despite the announcement of a ceasefire earlier this month, the conditions that sparked global outrage remain unchanged — Palestinians are still being killed, their land is still being stolen, and the apartheid regime that Israel has imposed on Palestinians for decades remains intact. The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) was one of the first unions to call for a ceasefire, on October 20, 2023. Now, as UE leaders, we believe more than ever that the labor movement still has a duty, not only to speak out, but to do the work necessary to ending the injustice against Palestinians so long as it continues to be funded by U.S. workers’ taxes and supported by our government.
During floor debate at the most recent UE national convention, held in Chicago, a rank-and-file member from Massachusetts stood up to say, “We have a lot more in common with people [in Palestine] being bombed — workers like us, members of the same class — than we do with the billionaires and the capitalists telling us that we should be happy about this.”
The remark was met with applause from the room filled with 200 people.
It was at this convention that UE voted on a bold resolution to “End the Genocide in Palestine.” The resolution notes that, “There is only one word which is adequate to describe Israel’s actions, and that is genocide,” supports Palestinian self-determination and the right of return for refugees, and, most notably, demands that the U.S. government immediately cease all military aid to Israel.
By taking this strong stand for Palestine, making clear why U.S. workers have a stake in Palestinian liberation, and doing it through a rank-and-file, democratic process, our members are embodying the best traditions of the labor movement, and demonstrating the true meaning of the labor movement slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all.”
Now, beyond a ceasefire agreement, is the time for labor to put their words into action and coalesce around demands to end U.S. aid to Israel and to support an arms embargo, finally putting an end to U.S. material support for Israel once and for all.
Our union’s engagement with Palestine dates back to a resolution passed at our 53rd Convention in 1988, “Time for a Just Settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.” The resolution noted that, “The occupation by Israel of the West Bank and other Arab lands since 1967 has blocked the exercise of Palestinian national rights and resulted in ongoing violations of human, social, political, economic and particularly trade union rights of Palestinians.” At UE’s 74th Convention in 2015, delegates endorsed the worldwide Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel to recognize Palestinian rights. Our resolutions on Palestine came about from our long-held belief that the labor movement should formulate its own positions on foreign policy, independent of both political parties and the government.
Since Israel began its most recent aggression on Palestine, UE and six other unions sent a letter to then President Biden last year demanding the U.S. government halt all aid to Israel. UE and the National Nurses United (NNU) sent a similar letter to President Trump on Oct. 2.
Unfortunately, for most of the 20th century, the mainstream of the American labor movement uncritically supported the foreign policy of the U.S. government. This had direct negative consequences for American workers. The massive resources devoted to the military-industrial complex were resources that could have gone to meet the needs of working people. In the later part of the century, union members increasingly saw their jobs shipped to low-wage countries where our country’s military and intelligence services had worked to prevent pro-worker governments from coming to power, or to overthrow them when they did.
In the last few decades, the U.S. labor movement has begun to show more signs of independence. In response to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, unions representing more than two million members joined UE in founding U.S. Labor Against the War. In early 2024, unions representing over nine million members formed the National Labor Network for Ceasefire, and in July of that year, seven national unions, representing over half of the union members in the U.S., sent a letter to President Biden demanding that he cut off military aid to Israel — representing the first time that a significant part of the U.S. labor movement was willing to oppose the foreign policy of a Democratic president.
This is a good start, but it is important for more unions to take up this issue. The U.S. labor movement has a direct material stake in ending military aid to Israel. The billions of dollars that go to providing Israel’s military with tanks and bombs could be better spent providing jobs, housing, education and healthcare to working people at home.
We also have a moral stake, because our tax dollars are being used to continue Israel’s aggression against Palestinians.
As the negotiations around the most recent ceasefire make clear, our government, as Israel’s largest arms supplier, has enormous leverage. There is no reason Trump, or Biden before him, could not have ended the slaughter in Gaza at any moment.
That means even beyond a ceasefire, it is our job to use our leverage as workers to help put an end to the injustice against Palestinians. Since the announcement of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 200 Palestinians, including with lethal air strikes.
The tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been killed by Israel, and the millions who have been displaced, driven from their land, and forced to live as refugees or under apartheid conditions, are our fellow working people. The most basic meaning of solidarity requires that those of us in the labor movement take up their cause and push demands to end U.S. support for Israel’s occupation, oppression, and genocide of the Palestinian people. We hope that, in the months and years ahead, more unions will join us in doing so.
General President Carl Rosen has been a member of UE since 1984 when he joined UE Local 190 in Chicago upon being hired at Kerr Glass. He worked at Kerr for 10 years as a maintenance electrician and served in various positions for the local including steward, publicity and education director, chief steward, bargaining committee member and president. In 1994, Rosen was elected as UE District 11 president and when District 11 was succeeded by the Western Region in 2006, he was elected as regional president. Rosen was elected General President in 2019.
Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker joined UE in the 1990s as a member of Local 223, and became a field organizer in 1997. Prior to his 2011 election as a national officer, Dinkelaker was president of the UE Eastern Region and before that, District 6. As secretary-treasurer he’s worked hard to complete the progress of bringing the UE budget into balance so that the union has the financial stability to continue its great work long into the future.
Director of Organization Mark Meinster joined UE in 1997 as a field organizer in New England, where he helped 350 service and maintenance workers at the University of Vermont organize UE Local 267. He worked organizing new locals, bargaining contracts, and running strikes in New England and then in the Midwest, where he assisted UE Local 1110 in their historic six-day plant occupation of Republic Windows and Doors in 2008. He helped launch Warehouse Workers for Justice in 2008, and since 2018 has led a UE organizing team that has won NLRB elections covering over 2000 workers across 15 states. He was elected Director of Organization in 2021.
