AUT: Fwd: US Unions turning against war

[Scott Hamilton <s_h_hamilton@xxxxxxxxx>]

Organized labor shows increasing distaste for war in
Iraq
BY PHILIP DINE Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
01/15/2003 09:22 PM

WASHINGTON - Signs of anti-war sentiment are mounting
in the American labor movement, as the administration
gears up for a possible attack on Iraq.

>From discussions in local union halls to public
protests, from petitions to speak-outs to resolutions,
workers are expressing concern or even outright
opposition to U.S. plans for military action.

"In the Vietnam era, by comparison, the labor movement
was broadly very hawkish," said Bob Bruno, who teaches
labor and politics at the University of Illinois.
"This time around, there is a lot of sentiment that
this war is not necessary, and a considerable amount
of suspicion as to the real agenda behind the push for
war."

Among the most recent efforts was a gathering over the
weekend in Chicago, spearheaded by the city's biggest
Teamsters local, at which 110 officers from labor
unions around the country tried to put organization
and money behind what have been mostly spontaneous,
grass-roots activities.

The meeting was hosted by the 20,500-member Teamsters
Local 705, whose leader, Jerry Zero, said he acted
because of overwhelming opposition among his members
to a war against Iraq.

"We're not exactly a real liberal union," Zero said.
"We've got a lot of truck drivers, UPS employees,
freight drivers. I'd say it's a pretty conservative
union. Yet they feel pretty strongly against the war."


The Teamsters have been far friendlier in recent
decades to Republicans than have most labor unions.
Current Teamsters President James Hoffa has strongly
backed President George W. Bush on several issues,
such as drilling for oil in Alaska.

At the Chicago session, union contingents from
California, Seattle, New York, Washington and Florida,
as well as labor activists from St. Louis and other
cities raised $30,000 to set up a group called U.S.
Labor Against War. They passed a resolution against an
"unprovoked war with Iraq," and they plan to send
protesters to anti-war marches Saturday in Washington
and San Francisco. They also hope to enlist the
support of 200 local unions in the next few weeks.

"If they contact us and ask us to do something, we'll
endeavor to get people together to join some kind of
concerted effort," said Herb Johnson,
secretary-treasurer of the 260,000-member Missouri
AFL-CIO.

"It's going to be an unprecedented thing for the
United States to go and initiate an armed conflict,"
Johnson said. "We're all red-blooded Americans, but I
have not read any evidence that this lousy fellow over
there (in Iraq) is the one who attacked us on
September 11."

Johnson said the Missouri federation agrees with the
cautions cited by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a
letter he sent in the fall to Congress. Sweeney urged
that the White House exhaust all diplomatic channels,
gain wide international support and make the case to
Congress and the American people before any military
action.

Sweeney's letter contrasts with the position taken by
the AFL-CIO during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when
the two statements issued by then-President Lane
Kirkland focused solely on expressing support for U.S.
forces.

In its last two polls, the Pew Research Center for the
People and the Press found less support for war among
union households than nonunion households, although
most in both groups supported military force.

About 100 labor union locals around the country have
passed resolutions expressing reservations about a war
with Iraq, often citing concerns that money would be
diverted from social, health and educational needs to
the conflict. And the 1.3 million-member American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
issued a resolution last month "condemning war on
Iraq."

Several factors appear to account for the difference
in labor's stance this time around:

The clear lines of the Cold War, when the United
States and Soviet Union battled around the world for
supremacy, have given way to a more complex world with
shadowy and shifting foes.

Labor leaders schooled in the Cold War outlook, such
as Kirkland, have been replaced by younger leaders who
grew up during the Vietnam War and tend to be more
skeptical toward government.

Union leaders and many workers tend to be particularly
suspicious of Bush and his administration, contending
that it favors business interests and the well-to-do.

The sagging economy is hurting workers, who fear that
issue could take a back seat to war.

Bob Kelley, president of the St. Louis Labor Council,
says he has seen no organized war opposition among his
members, but also no enthusiasm for war.

"Little by little, you're seeing more people question
this," he said. "There needs to be a debate about it.
. . . The level of concern is rising.

"We have blamed the attack on the World Trade Center
on al-Qaida, but unless I've missed it, we haven't
really blamed a particular sovereignty. If George Bush
walked out today and said we have proof that Saddam
Hussein knew of the attack, that he gave support to
the groups that did it, everybody would say, 'Go get
them.' But so far, they haven't made that case."

The Chicago meeting was prompted by an anti-war
petition presented to Zero in late November by a
member of Local 705, accusing the administration of
being motivated by oil interests. Zero raised it at
the local's next regular monthly meeting.

The vote for the resolution was 402-1.

"That shocked me," Zero said.

Members posted the resolution in their truck barns and
on the Internet. A former Teamsters organizer asked if
Zero could host a meeting in Chicago.

"I think it's quite unusual," he said. "It's early,
it's very early, no military action has started yet,
and people are really organizing against this thing.
People don't trust politicians as much as they used
to. We've been saying we know they have this stuff -
weapons of mass destruction - yet we won't direct the
inspectors to it. . . . And we have supported Iraq in
the past against Iran. It's hard to explain to a
factory worker how that is."

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/4435C06AFE1860A386256CAF00185AC3?OpenDocument&Headline=Organized%20labor%20shows%20increasing%20distaste%20for%20war%20in%20Iraq




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