Documents obtained by Salon show how UAW executives cited political reasons in their opposition to the local’s vote.

Further records show how the small pro-Israel opposition appealed and derailed the landslide vote with the help of a prominent law firm that has defended powerful multinational corporations like Wal-Mart, Amazon, Apple and Chevron.

Activists in the union — representing workers in the University of California system — told Salon they feel UAW International is putting powerful interests over the democratic will of its own rank-and-file members.

UAW initially responded to Salon’s request for comment by noting it received the message, but failed to reply to three more requests for comment over three weeks.

UAW Local 2865, the labor union representing more than 14,000 teaching assistants and other student workers at nine of the campuses in the University of California system, made history in December 2014. It became the first major U.S. labor union to vote to endorse BDS — or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, an international grassroots movement that promotes nonviolent economic means to pressure Israel into complying with international law and respecting Palestinian rights.

A Local 2865 officer who spoke with Salon but asked to remain anonymous stressed the importance of the BDS vote. The measure was brought forward to leaders by rank-and-file members, in response to a call from the Palestinian labor movement. Rank-and-file members of the local discussed the issue in more than four months of town hall meetings, debates and educational forums. UAW 2865’s elected leaders also gave members of the anti-BDS opposition platforms to share their perspectives.

Rank-and-files members endorsed the resolution in a landslide, with close to two-thirds (65 percent) of votes in favor. More members of the union participated in the BDS vote than in their local’s own general election, or in the vote on the contract regarding their own jobs and benefits. The BDS vote also inspired a rapid increase in enrollment in the union. The officer emphasized to Salon that the widespread participation and rapid growth in the union because of the BDS vote was how grassroots democracy looks in practice.

The text of the ballot, which is publicly available, “call[ed] on the University of California (UC) and UAW International to divest their investments, including pension funds, from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations as part of the Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people.”

A year after the vote, however, the UAW International Executive Board, or IEB, issued an appeal decision informing UAW 2865 that it had “nullified” the local’s vote — even while the IEB simultaneously applauded the thoroughly democratic and fair nature of that vote.

The IEB’s nullification was announced on Dec. 15 in a response to an appeal by Local 2865 member Stephen Brumbaugh. Brumbaugh is an outspoken member of Informed Grads, the anti-BDS opposition group. The IEB allowed this small pro-Israel contingent to compromise a resolution that was overwhelmingly supported by two-thirds of rank-and-file members of his local.

On Dec. 16, Informed Grads boasted that it had subverted the BDS endorsement via appeal. In a press release, the opposition group revealed that it had been represented by a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm that has defended some of the world’s largest corporations.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represented Chevron in one of the largest environmental lawsuits in history. The fossil fuel corporation was sued by Ecuador for allegedly polluting the rain forest. Bloomberg reported that the law firm that would later represent the anti-BDS opposition engineered “Chevron’s campaign to obliterate the pollution judgment.”

Chevron’s star Ecuadoran witness in the case admitted that he had lied. The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire reported that “Chevron later conceded its lawyers at the firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher coached Alberto Guerra for 53 days before he testified that a ‘bribe’ occurred in the Ecuador case.”

Partners at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have also represented corporations that would potentially be targets of BDS resolutions like that passed by UAW 2865, including Raytheon, Northrop Grumman,Lockheed Martin, Boeing and more.

The firm has been criticized several times in court recently while involved in headline-making cases, and has often defended corporations in opposition to left-wing causes.

A U.S. federal judge scolded lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 2011 for engaging in behavior with witnesses in the Chevron case that the court said was “meant to harass.”

In a 2015 judgment, the England and Wales High Court determined that a suspended partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher deliberately misled the court in a case involving the freezing of assets of a leading businessman and political rival in Djibouti.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hired Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher during the George Washington Bridge scandal, also known as “Bridgegate.” A federal judge blasted the firm for its behavior in the case in December 2015.

In 2007, the State of California sued leading car companies, including GM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan. The government accused the corporations of creating a global warming-related “nuisance.” Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher defended the car companies, and helped them get the lawsuit dismissed.

The law firm that assisted Informed Grads has also defended Wal-Mart against allegations of bribery, along with Amazon, Apple and more.

In a press release, Scott Edelman, the partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said, “We are very pleased by United Auto Workers International Union’s forceful rejection of BDS, which sets a powerful precedent for other labor unions and national organizations.”

“This result was due to a real team effort between our firm and Informed Grads,” he added.

Edelman did not respond to three different requests for comment.

“A fair and democratic vote”

Although the IEB nullified the vote in response to the appeal, when the anti-BDS opposition accused Local 2865 of conducting an undemocratic election, the IEB firmly stated otherwise. Documents obtained by Salon show the IEB wrote, “To the contrary, the case record discloses that the local union made an earnest effort to engage the membership in the BDS discussions.”

“We can find no evidence that the local union engaged in any improper actions that may have prohibited a fair and democratic vote on the BDS Resolution,” the IEB said. “Accordingly, the Appellant’s charge of an undemocratic election miscarries for lack of evidence.”

The IEB furthermore acknowledged that “the previous General Election had produced a lesser turnout than the vote on the BDS Resolution.”

Given the IEB’s admittance that the local’s vote was so democratic, the BDS Caucus of UAW 2865 — a group of rank-and-file members from every UC campus that says it is “dedicated to organizing and advocating for equality and justice for the Palestinian people” — told Salon that it found it “striking that, rather than nullifying the vote on electoral, procedural, or substantive UAW constitutional grounds, the international rehashed political arguments against BDS and Palestinian self-determination which the opposition caucus had been arguing in the lead-up to the vote.”

The IEB’s decision to nullify the vote rested on several grounds.

Firstly, the international board argued that allowing locals to make such a endorsement, even democratically, could economically impact members of other locals.

Secondly, the executives invoked the no-strikes clause of the local’s contract, conflating a written request for divestment with actual work disruption.

Thirdly, the international characterized the endorsement of BDS as anti-Semitic, even while it simultaneously acknowledged UAW 2865’s vocal and public opposition to anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism. In doing so, rank-and-file members accused the executives of ignoring the prominent Jewish leaders in the local who support BDS.

I. “Interfering with the flow of commerce”

In addition to calling on the University of California and UAW International to divest from Israeli state institutions, the BDS resolution that was passed in a landslide requested that the institutions also divest from and cease doing business with international corporations that are complicit in rights violations of the Palestinian people.

The BDS Caucus subsequently listed “companies that sell military equipment and weapons [to Israel], including Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, ITT, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon.”

In response to this measure, the IEB claimed that allowing Local 2865 to endorse a boycott of these corporations would “lead to a direct economic deprivation for members of the UAW, as well as other organized members by, categorically interfering with the flow of commerce to and from earmarked companies.”

UAW 2865’s BDS Caucus condemned the executives’ argument. “The IEB’s support for the profits of these companies — their prioritization of the so-called ‘flow of commerce’ — trumps their support for other labor unions (such as the Palestinian labor unions that initiated the call for BDS) and their own members (like the 65 percent of affirmative voters from UAW 2865),” the caucus said.