:: rawblogXport ::

:: Thursday, July 01, 2004 ::

SEIU Calls for End to U.S. Occupation And Withdrawal of Troops from Iraq LaborTalk by Harry Kelber
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the AFL-CIO's largest affiliated union with 1,600,000 members, voted to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and to bring U.S. troops stationed there home, in a resolution approved unanimously by nearly 4, 000 delegates at the union's national convention in San Francisco on June 22.

The strongly -worded resolution accused the Bush administration of using "deception, lies and false promises to the American people and the world" to launch a "unilateral, pre-emptive war" in Iraq, causing the death of thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of U.S. soldiers, and costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.

The union also charged the Bush administration with a series of attacks against working people that have eroded their economic, social and personal security. These attacks have resulted in declining wages and cuts in health care, education and other essential services, the resolution stated. It declared that "massive military spending, combined with tax cuts for the rich, is creating massive federal deficits and huge cuts in state public services."

The SEIU is the only national labor organization to speak out so unequivocally against the war in Iraq. The AFL-CIO and most of its affiliates have had an unwritten policy of totally ignoring Afghanistan, Iraq and the war on terrorism.

posted 6:20 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

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