UAW leader Shawn Fain joins calls for ceasefire in Gaza
A recent Reuters poll showed that two-thirds of Americans support a ceasefire, but those calls have largely not been echoed by Congress and the Biden Administration.
Protestors calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war block traffic on New York Avenue NW in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023.
With the conflict between Israel and Hamas now in its second month, the calls for a ceasefire are growing louder.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain joined U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and other members of Congress in Washington D.C. on Thursday to call for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks, Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 15,000 civilians in addition to destroying infrastructure and countless buildings. Standing alongside Tlaib, Fain said the union’s call for a ceasefire is built on human rights.
“This is a product of our belief in humanity that innocent civilians must be protected. We cannot bomb our way to peace,” he said. “The only path forward is to build peace and social justice through a ceasefire.”
Tlaib said unions have a history of supporting human rights, including giving her immigrant father a job.
“Even though he only had fourth grade education, even though he was Palestinian, even though he was Muslim on that assembly line, he was equal to every single human on that line,” she said of her father. “Who did that for him? The United Auto Workers did that for him.”
Fain echoed that sentiment at the rally on Thursday.
“We know unions provide a bridge toward fighting all forms of hatred, phobias, racism, sexism, antisemitism, homophobia, Islamophobia and more,” he said. “As union members, we know we must fight for all workers and suffering people around the world. We must fight for humanity.”
A recent Reuters poll showed that two-thirds of Americans support a ceasefire, but those calls have largely not been echoed by Congress and the Biden Administration. Though President Joe Biden warned this week that Israel was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, the U.S. still vetoed a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations Security Council hours later.
Congress is still working out the details of billions of dollars of defense aid to Israel.
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