Call for End to Israel Aid Is More Proof Organized Labor Is Progressivism and Progressivism Is Organized Labor

Seven major U.S. labor unions have issued a joint letter urging President Biden to immediately stop all military aid to Israel. “Mr. President, the time to act decisively to end this war is now. Stopping U.S. military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so, it is what U.S. law demands, and it will show your commitment to securing a lasting peace in the region,” the letter reads.

The Association of Flight Attendants, the American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters, the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union, the United Auto Workers, and the United Electrical Workers all signed the letter.

The war in Gaza is probably not top of mind for flight attendants, mailmen, painters, teachers, janitors, auto workers, and electricians. But it is top of mind for their labor unions, because those unions are appendages of the progressive movement.

The UAW called for a cease-fire in Gaza in December of last year, with some UAW locals calling for one mere days after the Hamas attack on October 7. The UAW, in particular, has a large contingent of higher-education workers in its ranks, with college campuses being hotbeds of anti-Israel activism. The UAW represents about the same number of workers at the University of California system as it does at General Motors.

The UAW Arab Caucus, which also supports the BDS movement, called for the union to change its stance from calling for a cease-fire only to also calling for a halt to all U.S. military aid back in February. Its letter to UAW president Shawn Fain at that time pointed out that some of the weapons being sent to Israel are made in UAW unionized shops and that “we will need to move beyond the supposed priorities of the traditional and often white male labor activists. We will need to work on campaigns and in ways that touch a wider range of diverse younger workers – Palestinian liberation is one such campaign, and we, as Arab unionists, know also that our liberation is interconnected.”

The United Electrical Workers is also a major unionizer of graduate students. The union touted 14,000 graduate students joining in 2023. That represented a huge increase in membership for the union, which reported to the Department of Labor that it had 23,020 members in mid 2023.

Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson is a political ally of Bernie Sanders and was considered for the position of secretary of labor in the Biden administration. Nelson asked the Biden administration to extend the federal mask mandate beyond May 2021, a request it obliged. She also joined other union leaders in denouncing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Labor unions, which had previously been staunch supporters of Joe Biden, turned on a dime to support Kamala Harris now that she is the Democrats’ presumptive nominee. The AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, Communication Workers of America, American Federation of Teachers, United Food and Commercial Workers, United Farm Workers, International Union of Painters, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Service Employees International Union, and National Union of Healthcare Workers all endorsed Harris on either Sunday or Monday.

Calling for a complete end to military aid for Israel might seem like an odd move if you understand labor unions to be representing their members. But it makes perfect sense if you understand labor unions to be what they are: part and parcel of the progressive movement.