UAWD and UAW Labor for Palestine IEB Divestment Resolution
Introduced by: Martha Grevatt (UAW Local 869 retiree), Sophia Gurulé (UAW Local 2325 trustee), Michael Letwin (UAW Local 2325 retiree)
Supported by: Logan Ausherman (Local 7), Derek M (Local 212), Shahinaz Geneid (GENU-UAW & HAW-UAW), Jessica Coffrin-St. Julien (Local 2325), Chuck Gelman (Local 7902), John King (7902), Amal Alzendani (Local 2325), Cameron Molyneaux (Local 2325), Nathan Partlan (GENU-UAW), Gregory Herrera (Local 2325), Trip Eggert (Local 2325), Naomi Schachter (Local 2325), Zachary Valdez (Local 2110), Katie Doman (Local 2325), Padraic Sieber (Local 2325) Maya Leggat (Local 2325), Leandra “Lee” Diaz (Local 2325, former Local 2110), Estefania Rodriguez (Local 2325), Navruz Baum (Local 2325), Dawnya Ferdinandsen (Local 14), Pooja Patel (Local 2325), Carol Larancuent (Local 2325), Sarah Chaudhry (Local 2325), Andrew Bergman (Local 22), Michelle McGrath (2325), Ignacia Lolas Ojeda(Local 2325), Annemarie Guare (Local 2320), Michelle O’Brien (Local 7902), Mary Jirmanus Saba (Local 4811), Alec Jessar (Local 2325), Aviva Galpert (Local 2325), Alexi Shalom (Local 2325), Richard Blum (Local 2325)
Resolution: UAWD and UAW Labor for Palestine IEB Divestment Resolution
Whereas
The UAW International Executive Board (IEB) can and must act democratically to reflect the will of dues paying members.
Whereas
Dozens of UAW locals have passed resolutions in support of Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movements over the years.
Whereas
Palestinian trade unions have repeatedly called on international labor to respect its picket and to End All Complicity and Stop Arming Israel, and reaffirmed the urgency of these calls here and here.
Whereas
UAW 2325 and rank-and-file UAW members (including here, here, here, and here) have repeatedly answered those calls by demanding that the IEB divest from Israel Bonds.
Whereas
All UAWD-endorsed candidates won in the recent IEB election, including Shawn Fain, Brandon Mancilla, Mike Booth, Margaret Mock, Rich Boyer, LaShawn English, and Daniel Vicente, with the active support and engagement of UAWD members.
Whereas
All UAWD-endorsed candidates ran on the UAWD Platform Plank, which includes the following on International Solidarity:
“The corporations are global, the labor movement must be global too, if we want to make lasting gains as a working class. As part of this, UAWD supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, called for by Palestinian unions and workers, and seeks to end all UAW investments in corporations perpetuating human rights violations.”
Whereas
Consistent with the UAWD Platform Plank, UAWD membership passed a resolution on December 10, 2023 titled “Resolution for UAWD to Educate & Organize for BDS & Palestinian Liberation as an Official Position of the UAW”, which supported the Palestinian labor movement’s call for unions “to take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.”
Whereas
At its quarterly meeting held April 30-May 2, the UAW International Executive Board nevertheless voted down a motion to cease all future UAW investments in Israel Bonds and securities and to divest nearly $1 million in such investments.
Whereas
Only two out of seven UAWD-endorsed IEB members voted consistently with the UAWD Platform Plank that they ran on and only three out of fourteen IEB members total voted in favor of the divestment motion, despite overwhelming support within the UAW for BDS and Palestine.
Whereas
The significant support within the UAW for BDS and Palestine reflects the majority of U.S. voters who 1) support a permanent ceasefire and immediate end to U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine; 2) support decreasing funding for military aid and weapons for Israel; 3) believe that Israel is committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza; and 4) disapprove of Congress passing $4 billion dollars to replenish Israel’s missile systems.
(https://www.filesforprogress.org/datasets/2024/5/dfp_zeteo_israel_palestine_crosstabs.pdf).
Whereas
The corporate and political elite who attack U.S. labor at large, including Representative Virginia Foxx and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, are the same people currently targeting UAW Local 2325, UAW Local 4811, and other UAW members for democratically passing resolutions in support of Palestine.
Whereas
Both the UAWD’s Palestine Solidarity and Peace Economy Working Group and UAW Labor for Palestine have a shared commitment to divesting the UAW from funding Israeli apartheid, occupation, and genocide.
Whereas
Every day that the UAW fails to divest from Israeli bonds and securities is another day that the UAW and its members are complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
Be it Therefore Resolved:
- That UAWD calls for divestment from Israel Bonds and to ban the investment of any future UAW funds in Israel Bonds.
- That UAWD, in collaboration with UAW Labor for Palestine facilitators who are UAWD dues paying members, develops an IEB Divestment Resolution, consistent with the UAWD Platform Plank, to to propose for adoption at the IEB Meeting.
- That, prior to the IEB Meeting, the UAWD Steering Committee schedules an “IEB Divest Now! Strategy Meeting” that will be open to all UAWD members on organizing Palestine solidarity efforts within and beyond the union, including pressuring the IEB to divest from Israel Bonds and expanding BDS organizing to every UAW local.
- That the agenda for the “IEB Divest Now! Strategy Meeting” is coordinated by any and all UAWD members who wish to participate, as part of a broader commitment from UAWD to educating rank-and-file members about divestment ahead of the date of the IEB Meeting and to organizing rank-and-file pressure on the IEB to vote for divestment.
- Should the IEB vote fail, the UAWD SC will publish a statement containing the the list of IEB members who voted yes, no, and abstaining, thanking those who voted yes as well as urging those who voted no or abstained to stand with our long held principle of internationalism and, for those who are UAWD members, UAWD’s platform plank on BDS.
