The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which boasts two million members, has joined a growing section of the US labour movement in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The SEIU is now the largest union in the country to issue such a statement. “Wherever violence, fear and hatred thrive, working people cannot,” reads the statement by Mary Kay Henry, the SEIU president.
The statement begins by condemning “the horrific attacks by Hamas on October [7],” while also condemning “the widespread attacks on innocent civilians, including the bombardment of neighborhoods, healthcare facilities, and refugee camps, by the Israeli military.”
“We call for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving food, water, medicine, and other resources to the people of Gaza,” the statement reads.
The SEIU joins an emerging sector of the US labour movement, which includes the United Auto Workers, the American Postal Workers Union, the United Electrical Workers and SEIU Local 1199.
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The SEIU joins this movement as popular support for a ceasefire grows, with a new poll indicating that voters are more likely to support political candidates who call for a ceasefire.
The union’s statement also indicates a willingness among major unions to break from the established Democratic Party status quo as the Biden administration has been openly hostile toward calls for a ceasefire.
The White House has gone as far as condemning progressive Congress members calling for a ceasefire, calling the pressure for peace “repugnant” and “disgraceful”. – Peoples Dispatch/Globetrotter News Service
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