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Open Letter to UAW Leadership: Respect Union Democracy, Solidarity, and the BDS Picket Line
Labor for Palestine
January 28, 2016
As workers, trade unionists, and anti-apartheid activists, we call on the United Auto Workers International Executive Board to rescind its undemocratic and arbitrary “nullification” of UAW 2865’s respect for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) picket line, which was overwhelmingly adopted by the 13,000 teaching assistants and student-workers at the University of California in 2014.
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Unfounded Interference
The IEB concedes that it could “find no evidence that the local union engaged in any improper actions that may have prohibited a fair and democratic vote.”
Nonetheless, it sides with anti-labor corporate lawyers to defend the profits of military contractors who arm apartheid Israel. Enlisting in a well-funded witch-hunt designed to silence those who speak up for Palestinian rights, it falsely calls BDS “anti-Semitic.”
In doing so, the IEB disregards more than a century of colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, including Israel’s establishment through the dispossession of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba (Catastrophe), a regime that veteran South African freedom fighters call “worse than apartheid.”
It turns a blind eye to $3.1 billion a year in U.S. military aid, with which Israel massacred 2200 Palestinians (including 500 children) in Gaza in 2014, and inflicted a 10-year high in Palestinian casualties in the West Bank in 2015.
It refuses to acknowledge more than fifty laws that discriminate against Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
It is deaf to urgent Palestinian trade union appeals for solidarity in the form of support for BDS.
It omits the stated goals of BDS, which demands an end to Israeli occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel; and implementation of the right of Palestinian refugees to return.
It ignores the endorsement of BDS by Black Lives Matter activists, Jewish members of UAW 2865, and trade unions around the world.
It fails to recognize that BDS is entirely consistent with past UAW support for boycotts organized by the Civil Rights Movement, United Farm Workers, and South African anti-apartheid movement.
Lacking any semblance of fairness, the IEB’s decision has been appealed to the UAW’s Public Review Board.
UAW Leaders’ Complicity with Apartheid
In contrast to UAW 2865’s highly-transparent support for BDS, the IEB’s biased ruling reflects UAW top leaders’ longstanding and unaccountable complicity with the racist ideology of Labor Zionism.
In the 1940s, UAW and other top U.S. labor leaders actively supported the Nakba. UAW president Walter Reuther was closely allied with future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, who later infamously pronounced, “[t]here were no such things as Palestinians.”
In the 1950s, UAW conventions passed pro-Israel resolutions and raised funds for the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation. Reuther’s brother, Victor, served as U.S. spokesperson for the Jewish National Fund, which remains at the forefront of seizing Palestinian lands. In subsequent years, “the UAW may have been the largest institutional purchaser of Israel Bonds,” which fund dispossession of the Palestinian people.
In 2007, International UAW leaders signed a statement drafted by the Jewish Labor Committee that attacked unions in the UK for endorsing BDS.
Now they seek to disenfranchise UAW 2865 members, muzzle free speech, and demonize the surging BDS movement.
Rank-and-File Resistance
Rank-and-file UAW members have a history of challenging this pro-apartheid stance.
In January 1969, the Detroit-based League of Revolutionary Black Workers publicly condemned Israeli colonialism. On October 14, 1973, three thousand Arab autoworkers in Detroit held a wildcat strike to protest UAW Local 600’s purchase—without membership approval—of $300,000 in Israel Bonds. On November 28, 1973, Arab, Black and other autoworkers struck to protest UAW International President Leonard Woodcock’ acceptance of the B’nai B’rith’s “Humanitarian Award.”
UAW 2865’s BDS resolution reclaims and revives this proud tradition of solidarity and social justice. When Palestinian trade unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and Labor for Palestine issued renewed BDS calls in response to Israel’s 2014 Gaza massacre, UAW 2865’s Joint Council openly informed the entire membership:
“We intend to throw our weight behind the BDS movement to add to the international pressure against Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian people. As workers, students, and as a labor union, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination from a settler-colonial power.”
On December 4, 2014, UAW 2865 members adopted this non-binding resolution by a landslide sixty-five percent, thereby becoming the first major U.S. union to endorse BDS.
Growing U.S. Labor Support for BDS
UAW 2865’s courageous vote was paralleled by 
ILWU Local 10 members who refused to handle Israeli Zim Line cargo in 2014, and has been followed by adoption of BDS resolutions by the United Electrical Workers and Connecticut AFL-CIO in 2015.
Attempts to silence this growing solidarity movement are doomed to failure, as reflected in the National Labor Relations Board’s recent dismissal of a challenge to the UE’s BDS resolution.
As the 2865 BDS Caucus explains:
“No letter from the IEB can erase the educational and organizational work we have done over the past year, work we will continue to do, energized no doubt by the IEB’s undemocratic, business-friendly attempt to nullify this vote. . . .
“We are part of a growing movement for union solidarity with the people of Palestine and for a democratic and visionary U.S. labor movement. As workers, educators, and students, we know together we can prevail over these forms of repression and continue striving for justice for all peoples.”
Sharing that vision, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with UAW 2865 in respecting the BDS picket line.
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Please also sign:
Support Student Workers’ Historic BDS Vote (US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation)
Stand with UAW Local 2865 (Jewish Voice for Peace)
INITIAL SIGNERS (List in formation)
(Affiliation shown for identification only // *Labor for Palestine co-conveners)
*Suzanne Adely, Global Workers Solidarity Network; Former Staff, Global Organizing Institute, UAW (NYC)
*Michael Letwin, Former President, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
*Clarence Thomas, Co-Chair, Million Worker March; ILWU L. 10 (retired)(Oakland CA)
*Jaime Veve, Transport Workers Union L. 100 (retired)(NYC)
Rabab Abdulhadi, California Faculty Association-San Francisco State University
Judith Ackerman, 1199SEIU, AFT, UFT, AFTRA, SAG (NYC)
Larry Adams, Former President, NPMHU L. 300; People’s Organization for Progress (NJ)
Bina Ahmad, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
Sameerah Ahmad, Former Diversity Coordinator, GEO/UAW L. 2322 (Chicago, IL)
Tanya Akel, Regional Director, IBT L. 2010
Greg Albo, YUFA, York University (Toronto, ON)
Tania Aparicio, Organizing Committee, SENS-UAW (NYC)
Noha Arafa, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
B. Ross Ashley, Former Shop Steward and Executive Council member, SEIU L. 204, then L. 1 (Toronto, ON)
Shahar Azoulay, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
Lejla Bajrami, 1199SEIU (Brooklyn, NY)
John Becker, IBT L. 814 (Detroit, MI)
Marie Bellavia, NEA/Portland Association of Teachers (OR)
Zarina Bhatia, GMB, TUC (retired) (Birmingham, UK)
Michael Billeaux, Recording Secretary, WITAA-AFT 3220 (Madison, WI)
Walter Birdwell, Retired Shop Steward, NALC Br. 283 (Laguna Vista, TX)
Dana Blanchard, Executive Board, Berkeley Federation of Teachers, AFT L. 1078
Dave Bleakney, 2nd National VP, CUPW (Ottawa, ON)
Donna Blythe-McColgan, Staff Rep., USW (Boston, MA)
Deena Brazy, AFSCME L. 6000 (Madison, WI)
Richard Blum, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Ray Bush, UCU Leeds Branch (UK)
Claudia Carrera, Shop Steward, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Joshua Carrin, Delegate, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Sara Catalinotto, Former Delegate, UFT/AFT L. 2 (NYC)
Joe Catron, NWU/UAW L. 1981 (NYC)
Nora Carroll, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Jan Clausen, President, Goddard College Faculty Union, UAW L. 2322
Frank Couget, NALC Br. 36 (NYC)
CUNY Law School Labor Coalition (NYC)
Amy Cross, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Mike Cushman, Former Secretary, LSE Branch, UCU (London, UK)
Denise D’Anne, SEIU L. 1021 (San Francisco, CA)
Ziad Dallal, Steward, UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Buzz Davis, Executive Board, AFT-W Retiree Council (Stoughton, WI)
Dominic DeSiata, IBEW L. 103 (Boston, MA)
John Dudley, SEIU-CT State Retirees Chapter
Lisa Edwards, Alternate Delegate, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
Arla S. Ertz, SEIU L. 1021 (San Francisco, CA)
John Estes, NALC (Birmingham, AL)
Shelley Ettinger, AFT L. 3882 (NYC)
Jessica Feldman, Shop Steward, UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Sarah S. Forth, NWU/UAW L. 1981 (Los Angeles, CA)
Josh Fraidstern, TWU L. 100 (Brooklyn, NY)
Cynthia Franklin, UHPA (Honolulu, HI)
Jeremy Fredericksen, Alternate VP and Delegate, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Carol Gay, President, NJ State Industrial Union Council
Nick Giannone, Trustee, Boilermakers L. 29 (Weymouth, MA)
Steve Gillis, Financial Secretary, USWA L. 8751 (Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union)
Mike Gimbel, Executive Board, AFSCME L. 375 AFSCME (retired)(NYC)
Brian Glennie, IUEC L. 82 (Parkville, BC)
Sherna Gluck, Former VP, CFA/SEIU L. 1983
Sam Grainger, SENS-UAW (NYC)
Martha Grevatt, Civil and Human Rights Committee, UAW L. 869 (Ferndale, MI)
Ira Grupper, Delegate (retired), Greater Louisville (KY) Central Labor Council, BCTGM L. 16T
Gabriel Haaland, Steward, CWA L. 9404 (Vallejo, CA)
Jesse Hagopian, Association Rep., Seattle Education Association/NEA
Frank Hammer, UAW-GM international Rep.; UAW L. 909 (retired)(Detroit, MI)
Denise N. Hammond, Unifor 591g (Toronto, ON)
Lenora Hanson, Member, Executive Board, AFT L. 3220, Teaching Assistants’ Association (Madison, WI)
Abdul-Basit Haqq, Staff Rep., CWA L. 1037 (Piscataway, NJ)
Janet Harmon, Local Trustee, AFSCME DC 37 L. 436 (NYC)
Shafeka Hashash, Steward, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
David Heap, University of Western Ontario Faculty Association
Win Heimer, VP, Greater Hartford Central Labor Council; AFT L. 4200R and CSEA Council 400, L. 2001, SEIU, CTW
Lucy Herschel, Delegate, 1199SEIU (Queens, NY)
Monadel Herzallah, SEIU (San Francisco, CA)
Jack Heyman, ILWU L. 10 (retired); Chair, TWSC; Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (Oakland, CA)
Molly Hogan, ILWU/IBU (retired)(CA)
Jey Iyadurai, Human Rights Rep., CUPW 626 (Toronto, ON)
Ruth Jennison, Departmental Rep., Massachusetts Society of Professors, MTA, NEA
Dan Kaplan, Executive Secretary, San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers-AFT L. 1493
Daniel J. Kelly, Shop Steward and Albany Labor Council Delegate, CSEA L. 1000 and L. 690
Ed Kinchley, SEIU L. 1021 Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council
John Kirkland, Carpenters L. 1462 (Bucks County, PA)
David Klein, California Faculty Association (Los Angeles, CA)
Jeff Klein, Retired President, NAGE/SEIU L. R1-168 (Boston, MA)
Cindy Klumb, Chief Shop Steward, OPEIU L. 153 (Brooklyn, NY)
Dennis Kortheuer, California Faculty Association
Daniella Korotzer, Former VP and former Health and Safety Officer, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Dennis Kosuth, Steward, NNU (Chicago, IL)
Pooja Kothari, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Rebecca Kurti, 1199SEIU (Queens, NY)
David Laibman, PSC-CUNY/AFT L. 2334 retirees’ chapter (NYC)
Carol Lang, AFSCME DC 37 and PSC-CUNY/AFT L. 2334 (Bronx, NY)
Patrick Langhenry, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Queens, NY)
Angaza Laughinghouse, VP, NC Public Service Workers Union-UE L. 150
Raymond Leduc, Boilermakers L. 29 (retired)(Orleans, MA)
David Letwin, AAUP (Brooklyn, NY)
Eli Lichtenstein, Organizing Committee, SENS-UAW (NYC)
Michael Louw, Organizer/Educator, Congress of South African Trade Unions
Eamon McMahon, Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA); UNISON; Secretary, Trade Union Friends of Palestine
Ying-Ying Ma, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Mone Makkawi, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Leah Martin, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer, UAW L. 4121 (Seattle, WA)
Mark S. Mendoza, Cincinnati Worker Center
Kevin Moloney, CUPE 3903 (ON)
Susan Morris, Former Alternate VP, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Roslyn R. Morrison, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Eli Nadeau, Organizing Committee, SENS-UAW (NYC)
Yasaman Naraghi, UAW L. 4121 (Seattle, WI)
Chris Nickell, Shop Steward and Unit Rep., GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Michelle O’Brien, Steward, GSOC/UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Jose A. Ortega, IBEW L. 145 (Rock Island, IL)
Rod Palmquist, UAW L. 4121 (Seattle, WA)
Anne Pasek, Steward, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Joe Piette, NALC Br 157 (retired)(Philadelphia, PA)
Daniel Pines, CSEA L. 0828 (Rochester, NY)
Kristin Plys, GESO/Yale (Göttingen, Germany)
Andrew Pollack, Former Shop Steward, District 65-UAW (Brooklyn, NY)
Stephanie Pope, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Staten Island, NY)
Tom Potter, AFSCME L. 3650, HUCTW; Socialist Alternative (Cambridge, MA)
Minnie Bruce Pratt, NWU/UAW L. 1981 (Syracuse, NY)
Nathaniel Preus, GSOC-UAW L. 2110, (NYC)
James Prothero, IBT L. 155 (Mission, BC)
Linda Ray, Co-chair, Peace & Solidarity Committee, SEIU L. 1021 (San Francisco, CA)
Eric Robson, Steward and Trustee, AFSCME L. 171 (Madison, WI)
Laurence S. Romsted, AAUP-AFT Rutgers University (Highland Park, NJ)
Marco Antonio Rosales, UAW L. 2865 Unit Chair (Davis, CA)
Sandra Rosen, Former Solidarity Committee Co-chair, HUCTW/AFSCME (retired), (Cambridge, MA)
Mimi Rosenberg, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Susan Rosenthal, NWU/UAW L. 1981 (Canada)
Andrew Ross, President, NYU-AAUP (NYC)
Gillian Russom, Area Chair, Board of Directors, UTLA/AFT L. 1021 (Los Angeles, CA)
James W. Ryder, Collective Bargaining Director (retired), CNA/NNU (Oakland, CA)
Carl Sack, Membership Secretary, AFT L. 3220 (UW-Madison Teaching Assistants’ Association)
Rodrigo Santelices, ALAA/UAW 2325 (NYC)
Heike Schotten, Faculty Staff Union at University of Massachusetts Boston; Executive Committee, MTA
Gerry Scoppettuol, Co-founder, Pride at Work, Boston AFL-CIO; past member, District 65/UAW
Mary Scully, Women’s, Safety, and Education committees, IUE-CWA L. 201 (retired), (McAllen, TX)
Richard Seaford, UCU (Exeter, UK)
Kim Scipes, Former Chair, Chicago Chapter, NWU/UAW L. 1981
Snehal Shingavi, TSEU/CWA L. 6186 (Austin, TX)
Tyler Shipley, CUPE 3903 (Toronto, ON)
Sid Shniad, Research Director, Telecommunications Workers Union (retired)(Vancouver, BC)
Alexandra Smith, ALAA/UAW 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Linda Sneed, Campus Rep., AFT 2279 (Sacramento, CA)
Nancy Snyder, Recording Secretary Emeritus, SEIU L. 1021 (Los Angeles, CA)
Edward Stiel, IBEW L. 302 (San Francisco, CA)
Susan Stout, Retirees Secretary, Unifor L. 2002 (N. Vancouver, BC)
Garrett Strain, UAW L. 4121 (Seattle, WA)
Uri Strauss, Steward, UAW L. 2320 (Springfield, MA)
Brenda Stokely, Former President, AFSCME DC 1707, Co-Chair, Million Worker March Movement (Brooklyn, NY)
Cynthia Taylor, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (NYC)
Steve Terry, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Will Thomas, NEA (NH)
Miriam Thompson, UAW L. 259 (retired)(Chapel Hill, NC)
Joanne Tien, Steward, UAW L. 2865 (Oakland, CA)
Azalia Torres, ALAA/UAW L. 2325 (Brooklyn, NY)
Transport Workers Solidarity Committee (Oakland, CA)
Burnis E. Tuck, AFGE L. 3172 (retired); IWW (Fresno, CA)
Mar Velez, Former President, UAW 2865 (Oakland, CA)
Karen Walker, Postings Officer, CUPE 3903 (ON)
Dr. Peter Waterman, ABVA-KABO, FNV (retired)(The Hague, Netherlands)
Barry Weisleder, OSSTF (Toronto, ON)
Dave Welsh, NALC Br. 214; Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council
Nancy Welch, United Academics, VTAFT/AAUP (Burlington, VT)
Paul Werner, Former member, ACT-UAW L. 7902 (Vienna, Austria)
Edwina White, SEIU L. 1000 (retired)(Sacramento, CA)
Rand Wilson, SEIU L. 888 (Somerville, MA)
Ella Wind, Unit Rep., NYU GSOC-UAW L. 2110; Academic Workers for a Democratic Union
Sherry Wolf, Lead Organizer, Rutgers AAUP-AFT; CWA L. 1032
Marc Wutschke, House of Rep.s, AFT L. 1021 (Los Angeles, CA)
Nantina Vgontzas, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Sabina Virgo, Past and Founding President, AFSCME L. 2620 (retired)(Los Angeles, CA)
John Yanno, Delegate, UFT/AFT L. 2 (Brooklyn, NY)
ADDITIONAL SIGNERS
Mark Matthews, CAW (retired)(Vancouver, BC), Canada
Max Rosen-Long, Bldg. rep., PFT L. 3 (Philadelphia, PA), and a building representative
Chris Butters, Chapter Chair, L. 1070, DC 37, AFSCME (retired)(NYC)
Brooks Ballenger, Organizer/Representative, UAW L. 2322 (Amherst, MA)
Larry Hendel, CFA (Berkeley, CA)
Catherine Orozco, NOLSW/UAW (retired)(San Francisco, CA)
George McAnanama, TWU L. 100 (retired)(Bronx, NY)
Russell Weiss-Irwin, SEIU L. 175 (NYC)
Robert Kosuth, MEA (retired)(Duluth, MN)
David Riehle, Chairman Emeritus, UTU L. 650 (St. Paul, MN)
Robert Pfefferman, DC 37, AFSCME retirees (NYC)
Vincent Calvetti, UAW L. 4121 (Seattle, WA)
Mercedes Martinez, President, FMPR (Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico)
Julia Wallace, SEIU L. 721 (Los Angeles, CA)
Aaron Amaral, Esq., DC 37, AFSCME (Jackson Heights, NY)
Michael Haire, 1199SEIU East (Saten Island, NY)
Adrienne Pine Washington, Former Recording Secretary and and statewide bargaining team member, UAW 2865 (UC Berkeley)
Hannah Roditi, CWA (Bloomfield, CT)
Nathan Pensler, Unit Representative, GSOC-UAW L. 2110 (NYC)
Elisabeth Fiekowsky, former member UAW; Labor rep., IFPTE, ESC L. 20 (Sebastopol, CA)
Frances Agnew Crieff, National Federation of Post Office and British Telecom Pensioners, (UK)
Peter King Churchill, UCU (Oxford, UK)
Blair Bertaccini, AFSCME retirees Chapter 4; AFSCME Council 4 PEOPLE Committee (Waterbury, CT)
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