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http://bit.ly/uerankandfileresponse
To the UE General Executive Board
Response to “The stakes of 2024 Election” Statement
We, the undersigned rank and file members of UE, understand that liberation will not come from the ballot box. Politicians and the ruling class are never going to willingly give up their power. Rather than asking fellow workers to hold their nose, we need workers to keep both hands free to build the labor movement that we need in the United States today.
As a first step towards this, we, the undersigned, demand that the General Executive Board amend the released statement to abide by UEs principles of political independence, remove the call for UE members to “hold their nose and vote for Biden”, and instead, encourage members to use their power to build capacity within their locals and communities to fight for a labor movement that depends on no federal administration to survive.
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Petition to Amend GEB Statement That Encourages UE Members to Vote for Biden
To UE General Executive Board:
The June 7th statement “The Stakes of the 2024 Election” is not consistent with UE’s principled history of political independence and organizing labor power against political structures that harm workers on an international scale. In order to force powerful institutions to yield power, the labor movement must be a real threat and not concede leverage for a lesser evil.
The two-party trap and unappealing choice in the November election does not necessitate that UE request membership to hold their nose and vote for a candidate. Instead, we must direct energy to building a labor movement that can withstand whoever is in power. Workers are only marginally better than we were four years ago and faced with the same choice. When it comes to addressing the policy failures of Biden and Trump, who have both enacted anti-worker, anti-immigrant, and pro-war policies, our focus must remain on building working-class power that challenges these failures rather than normalizes them.
UE undermines its own principled history to consider Biden’s approach to labor a favorable future for the working class when his actions involve the exploitation of labor at home to fund a genocide abroad. We should not credit Biden for the tens of thousands of new graduate worker members while ignoring his role in brutalizing and arresting UE members for doing what our union has taught us to do: fight for workers around the world. Our union was among the first to organize undocumented workers, we have a long history of advocacy for Black workers during the time of Jim Crow, we challenged xenophobia when we joined hands with Mexican workers in direct opposition to NAFTA, and have been on the front lines of anti-war efforts from the Vietnam War, to the invasion of Iraq, and most recently calling for a ceasefire in Palestine in October 2023.
We recognize the long-haul fight to take down the “corrupt, two-party system.” We organize and build capacity in our workplaces and communities in ways that are in line with UE’s principled history. From protecting our communist and left-leaning comrades by refusing to sign the Taft Hartley Affidavits, to holding out on the picket line until women workers were ensured the same raise as men, UE members have a decades-long history of militant organizing for rights that leave no member behind, even when the fight is against the state itself, no matter the federal administration. We are ready to continue that legacy. The conciliatory asks in “The Stakes of the 2024 Election” do not serve and ultimately sabotage these organizing efforts.
We, the undersigned rank and file members of UE, do not depend on instructions from the state in order to protect workers’ right to organize, to fight for protections against discrimination, and for health and safety regulations. We remind the General Executive Board that workers are not wholly dependent on the NLRB, as shown by UE Local 150. We are not part of a labor movement that is dependent on a federal or state board that will give us the right to fight for each other. We are building a labor movement that is truly independent of state actors and can withstand attacks on our rights from the corporate class.
We, the undersigned rank and file members of UE, understand that liberation will not come from the ballot box. Politicians and the ruling class are never going to willingly give up their power. Rather than asking fellow workers to hold their nose, we need workers to keep both hands free to build the labor movement that we need in the United States today.
As a first step towards this, we, the undersigned, demand that the General Executive Board amend the released statement to abide by UEs principles of political independence, remove the call for UE members to “hold their nose and vote for Biden”, and instead, encourage members to use their power to build capacity within their locals and communities to fight for a labor movement that depends on no federal administration to survive.
In solidarity,
See the signed letter and updated signatories here.
(*emails will not be collected, only the name you sign below will be displayed. Please only sign once.)
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Abby Granath, UE Local 1466
Abigail Sipes, UE Local 197
Alaa Saad, UE Local 197
Alex Baten, UE local 1466
Alina Spiegel, UE Local 197
Andrew Eneim, UE Local 197
Anna Word, UE Local 197
April Ma, UE Local 197
August Villanueva, UE Local 696
Benita Menezes UE Local 197
Britt Lawson, UE Local 696
Breezy Mueller, UE Local 667
Chris Gridley, UE Local 696
Cove Geary, UE Local 261
Crystal Grabowski, UE Local 696
Dominic Oddo, Local 1466
Drew Perron, UE Local 667
Duncan McGraw, Local 1466
Eve Tipps, UE local 1466
Farah Farid, UE Local 197
Fritz Geist, UE Local 667
Geni Goebel, UE Local 261
Hannah Zadeh, UE Local 896
Hashem Amireh, UE Local 150
Hwa Huang, UE Local 150
Iris Powell, UE Local 667
Jackson O’Connell Barlow, UE Local 667
Jadin Moore, UE Local 1466
Jake Willard, UE Local 261
Janvi Madhani, UE Local 197
Jason Lovell, UE Local 667
Jayati Sharma, UE Local 197
Jeff Davis, UE Local 197
Jeffrey Fisher, UE Local 667
Jiwon Kim, UE 197
Jocelyn Kirkwood, UE Local 696
Jonas Johnson, UE Local 197
Jorge Mancilla, UE Local 150
Josh Trapp, UE Local 667
Justin Otter, UE Local 197
Kai Herron, UE Local 261
Katie Slack, UE Local 1466
Kelly Knupp, UE Local 1466
Kelsey Breslow, Local 667
Kris Rosentel, UE Local 1122
Kunal Joshi, UE Local 197
Larkin Coffey, UE Local 150
Laurel Poolman, UE Local 197
Leaf Freeman, UE Local 696
Lexi Kenis, UE Local 1466
Liz Dustman, UE Local 667
Logan Mann, UE Local 261
Lyla Atta, UE Local 197
Marta Cerreti, UE Local 197
Max Pagano, UE Local 1466
Megan Moffitt, UE Local 667
Melissa Kissling, UE Local 197
MH, UE local 696
Mike Murphy, UE Local 667
Nikhil Kothegal, UE Local 150
Noor Jahan Ahmed UE Local 197
Perry Maddox, UE Local 197
Rendi Rogers, UE Local 261
Rikki Farrell, UE Local 1466
Rishi Bhandia, UE 197
Ronay Bakan, UE Local 197
Sean Hare, UE Local 197
Sojung Kim, UE 197
Steven Ortega, UE Local 1043
Syd Blackwell, UE local 667
Tina Economou, UE Local 150
William Balmer, Local 197
Wisam Awadallah, UE Local 197
Zac Morgan, UE Local 150
