United Electrical Workers Union Statement on the "Occupy Wall Street" Movement

[Better Believe It]

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America

NEWS RELEASE
Statement of UE National Officers on the Occupy Wall Street Movement
07 November, 2011
UE's three national officers -- President Bruce Klipple, Secretary-Treasurer Andrew Dinkelaker, and Director of Organization Bob Kingsley -- have issed the following statement on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement:

UE - the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America - stands in solidarity with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and the marches, protests, assemblies and occupations it has sparked across the country. In the past few weeks members of UE have joined in many of those actions, in cities including Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago, Davenport and Iowa City, Iowa; Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina; Burlington, Vermont; Charleston, West Virginia; and Los Angeles, California.

Three years ago - as the very moment when the reckless, unrestrained greed of Wall Street bankers and speculators was dragging the economy into a deep crisis - a bold action by 240 UE members at a small factory in Chicago captured the country's attention and gave voice to the anger of millions. The members of UE Local 1110 occupied Republic Windows and Doors to protest its sudden closing, and refused to leave until the company and Bank of America agreed to pay them the wages and benefits they were owed. Addressing themselves to the bank, which was largely responsible for the plant closing, the Republic workers and their supporters shouted, "You got bailed out, we got sold out!"

That chant, and the six-day plant occupation from which it arose, are now echoed in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The protestors, predominantly young, have revived the tactic of occupation which, in the form of sit-down strikes, was central to the growth of a militant U.S. labor movement in the 1930s. The factory occupations of the '30s not only brought millions of workers into unions. They also helped enact some of the most important economic and social reforms of the 20th century, and placed much-needed restrictions on the unbridled Wall Street greed that had caused the great stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

The direct action of the Republic workers, and solidarity actions by supporters across the country, won the workers the $1.75 million they were owed, and led a few months later to the reopening of the plant under a union contract. To overcome the systemic injustices that the Wall Street occupiers are protesting will take a much larger and sustained effort at movement building, but the beginnings are promising.

This country is overdue to have a mass popular movement that correctly identifies the causes of our current economic mess in the outrageous behavior of Wall Street, big business, and the super rich. OWS activists have correctly highlighted the deepening economic inequality of American society, where the wealthiest 1 percent own 40 percent of the wealth. Identifying their movement with "the 99 percent" has proven an effective way to illustrate that the vast majority of Americans are harmed by policies that favor the corporate capitalist elite. The Occupy activists have been non-violent, reasonable, and extremely democratic in their proceedings, living up to the slogan, "This is what democracy looks like."

Political despair had been growing in our country, especially over the past year, as a resurgent right wing has scapegoated workers, unions, the unemployed and the poor as the source of the country's economic problems. Just when we most need stronger regulation and enforcement to reign in corporate misdeeds, and government stimulus spending to put people to work, rebuild infrastructure and rescue schools and other vital public services, the agenda of the teabaggers and Republicans is to slash government spending, dismantle the most needed public services, add millions of public workers to the ranks of the jobless - and turn loose the corporate greedy to create more disasters.

Adding to the sense of hopelessness has been the continuing failure of many Democratic politicians to coherently identify the country's problems and offer a program to restore jobs and justice. The Obama administration and much of the Democratic congressional leadership have largely given in to the Republican line that cutting the deficit, not creating jobs, should be the top priority. We see the two parties negotiating in Washington over how much more working people must give up for the sake of the bankers. This takes place even as American workers suffer from stagnant wages, disappearing pensions, rising healthcare costs, and an unemployment rate that remains stuck close to 10 percent, while the top 1 percent grab nearly 70 percent of the national income.

Thankfully, the Occupy movement has begun to change the public conversation. Suddenly discussion of corporate greed and gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of us has reentered the national dialogue - even the corporate-controlled media. OWS activists have also proven to be reliable and welcome allies to the labor movement, showing up in big numbers to help workers engaged in struggles with their employers.

We are also pleased that much of the labor movement has embraced the Occupy Wall Street movement. For too long, labor leaders have believed that we could make progress for our members by playing an "inside game" of campaign donations and lobbying, and that "friends of labor" in public office could be relied on to deliver for working people. But in 2009, with a Democratic Congress and Democratic White House, we could not get passage of modest labor law reform, and could not get a jobs and economic stimulus package sufficient to the country's dire needs. Unless we have a mass movement in the streets, fighting against corporate greed, we will continue to lose to corporate greed. We are hopeful that the rest of the labor movement is finally realizing that.

The solidarity between the labor movement and OWS must include defense of the occupiers and other protestors against police attacks and other forms of government harassment, surveillance, and repression. The brutal attacks on peaceful protestors in New York, Oakland and several other cities reveal that some mayors and police officials think their job is not to protect the safety of the public, but to protect the corporate rich from the protests of the public. Public officials who engage in or support such attacks on civil liberties and democratic rights must be made aware that they will face overwhelming public outrage.

We in UE welcome the Occupy Wall Street movement, and commit our efforts to building, together, an unstoppable mass movement for economic justice and democracy. We call on UE members nationwide to take to the streets in support of the occupation.

http://www.ueunion.org/uenewsupdates.html?news=651

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

That's a big endorsement.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Good

[PETRUS]

3. Fantastic. nt