Vermont AFL-CIO
Affiliates to USLAW
Report from Hal Leyshon, Vermont AFL-CIO Executive Board member and central
labor council president
On September 25th the Vermont State Labor Council’s annual
convention voted, nearly unanimously, to support bringing our troops home
and to affiliate to US Labor Against the War.
The discussion and vote had been prepared by months of discussions with
union leaders and activists and holding public forums together with Military
Families Speak Out. Activists manned a USLAW table, distributing literature,
asking delegates and observers to sign a pledge to support the anti-war
resolution, and getting some one third of the delegates to wear USLAW
buttons.
Speakers from the CWA’s Alliance@IBM, UAW 1981 and the AFT cited the growing number
of international unions (CWA, AFSCME, SEIU, APWU, Mail
Handlers), the
With this vote, the Vermont AFL-CIO joins with the Vermont Workers
Center/ Jobs with Justice and the Washington-Orange-Lamoille Central Labor
Council in building a Vermont component of US Labor Against the War. State
Federation Dan Brush has appointed an official representative to USLAW’s Steering Committee. Delegates met immediately
following the vote to begin to organize an official Vermont AFL-CIO committee
to take USLAW’s message and educational
materials deeper into the rank-and-file membership of our affiliates.
End the occupation of
Iraq — Bring our troops home!
Submitted by: Washington-Orange-Lamoille Central Labor
Council, AFL-CIO
WHEREAS, there is general agreement in the United States and
throughout the world that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction that
posed an imminent threat to this country or to Iraq’s neighbors, and that
the government of Iraq had few if any discernable ties to those who perpetrated
the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; and
WHEREAS, the pretexts for war have been systematically revealed to
have been fabricated, manipulated, exaggerated, or distorted to justify an
invasion of Iraq planned long before September 11, 2001; and
WHEREAS, the federal government has approved $150 billion in public
funds for the U.S. war in Iraq, draining those funds away from domestic
priorities including transportation, health care, and national security; and
WHEREAS, working families have paid a heavy price for the U.S.
involvement in Iraq with dead and wounded loved ones and Vermont has paid a
disproportionate share of the loss of citizens to the war, and
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has kept in force Saddam Husseins ban on public sector labor unions and used the
Iraq war as an excuse to attack labor unions in this country; and
WHEREAS, the Bush Administration has used the Iraq War and the
"War on Terrorism" as a platform to advocate for restrictions of
civil liberties, with measures such as the Patriot Act; and
WHEREAS, the best way to support our troops is to bring them
home; and
WHEREAS,
RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO recognizes
the courage and sacrifices of U.S. military personnel who have faced
extraordinary dangers in the U.S. war in Iraq and who now want to come home;
and be it further
RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO calls on
Vermont Governor James Douglas to demand the discharge from duty in
RESOLVED, that the Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO calls on the
National AFL-CIO to demand an immediate end to the US military occupation of
Iraq and speedy return of all U.S. military personnel to their homes and
families, and to support the repeal of the Patriot Act and the reordering of
national priorities toward the human needs; and be it finally
RESOLVED, that the
Vermont State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, in recognition and furtherance of its
position in opposition to current