Members of United Auto Workers at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of California, Los Angeles on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

By Rebecca Massel July 24, 2024

Seven prominent national unions have called on President Joe Biden to “immediately halt all military aid to Israel.”

“Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues,” American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein said in a press release after the letter was issued Tuesday, the day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress. “Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy. We need a ceasefire now, and the best way to secure that is to shut off US military aid to Israel.”

The unions that signed the letter include the National Education Association which has approximately 3.2 million members, and the Service Employees International Union, which has approximately 2 million members.

The others are: the Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters, the United Auto Workers  and the United Electrical Workers.

In February, seven national unions — six of which also signed the July 23 letter — and more than two hundred local unions founded the National Labor Network for Ceasefire aiming to “end the death and devastation” in the Israel-Hamas war. Together, they represent over 9 million workers.

According to the letter, union members spoke with leaders of Palestinian trade unions who “told us heart-wrenching stories of the conditions faced by working people in Gaza.”

In an interview, United Electrical Workers General President Carol Rosen touched on Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “We condemn all forms of violence and we certainly are not defending anything that happened on Oct. 7, but we also think it is absolutely indefensible what’s been happening in terms of the widespread loss of life since then,” he said.

Rosen said his union, like many others, has a long history of taking positions on foreign policy matters. The union was one of the first to speak out against the Vietnam War and was part of the founding of the umbrella group U.S. Labor Against the War, now called the U.S. Labor Against Racism and War, which came together in 2003 to oppose  U.S. military action in Iraq.

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