Information on the April 8, San Francisco Labor Council meeting that revoked the March 11 resolution, demanding Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories has been slowly trickling in. Only labor council delegates were allowed in the room. Everyone else had to leave. SF Labor Council meetings are generally opened to observers...

The most ardent proponents to rescind the March 11 resolution were many of the central leaders of the Building Trades Council, who had been told in no uncertain terms by Natalie Berg, a commissioner with the San Francisco College Board, and a leading figure in the local Democratic Party, that the Building Trades’ contracts and agreements with the College Board would be terminated if the Labor Council did not reverse its position on the Middle East. This was blackmail, pure and simple, from leading forces within the Democratic Party. Local 790, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) provided most of the votes to rescind. SEIU locals 250 and 535 split the votes. Had the vote been based on “one vote, one delegate” the motion to rescind would probably not have carried. Instead votes were counted by the size of the locals represented, which is legal. The Building Trades, SEIU 790, a split vote by the other two SEIU Local, and several other smaller locals was enough to provide the two-thirds majority necessary to rescind a previous resolution.

Other pressures came from the pro-Israel lobby and the media, which portrayed the Labor Council resolution as “soft on terrorism” and even anti-Semitic – which, of course, is a total fabrication and a slander.

The San Francisco Labor Council voted to hold a forum where various points of view on the Middle East could be expressed and mandated its Executive Board to establish a committee to prepare a new resolution on the Middle East conflict.

Ken Morgan, ILWU Local 6

Previous report

18 Apr

The San Francisco Labor Council, April 8, due to the weighted votes allotted to Locals 250 and 790 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Building Trades and several other unions voted to rescind the resolution passed in March, calling for Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories, and condemning the bombing of the offices of the Palestinian union federation.. Israel is currently conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people. The resolution also called for the Palestinian and Israeli labor federations to unite for the purpose of stopping the violence. Apparently, according to rumor the reversal of the resolution was a result of intervention by SEIU International President, Andy Stern, and the Democratic Party, who unquestionably support Israel. Much to its shame, the US labor movement, has uncritically supported Israel’s policy of mass murder, just as it supports the United States policy of mass murder in Iraq. Unknown to most people, Israel is in violation of US law by using military equipment and weapons supplied by the US, against a civilian population. Those of you who want reports on the non-US Press, as to what is really going on, contact me directly.

Ken Morgan, ILWU Local 6