Graduate Student Labor Union To Vote On Boycott Of Israel
Source: Huffington Post
Dave Jamieson
WASHINGTON -- In a looming vote that already has stirred passions on California campuses, a labor union representing graduate students in the state university system will decide this week whether to formally endorse a boycott of Israel.
The University of California Student-Workers Union, a local union of the United Auto Workers covering 12,000 teaching assistants, tutors and other students, will vote Thursday on a ballot initiative in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, the pro-Palestinian campaign that calls for a boycott of Israel. The ballot text proposes supporting the boycott until Israel "has complied with international law and respected the rights of Palestinians."
In the event of an aye vote, the union will call on both the University of California system and the UAW international union to divest from companies that the pro-BDS caucus deems "complicit in Israeli occupation of Palestine and its apartheid policies." The initiative also invites graduate students to take a personal vow declining participation in research or conferences sponsored by Israeli schools that BDS backers consider similarly accountable.
As with nearly anything touching on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the union's boycott vote presents some thorny politics. For one, the measure effectively would call for a boycott of companies that employ other UAW workers, such as Lockheed Martin. The California Teamsters, which also represent workers at companies that fall under the boycott, have called the BDS measure "hostile" and said they would "find it difficult" to defend the union in solidarity in the future.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/graduate-students-bds-california_n_6258006.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Funny how outside the pro Israel "bubble" words like apartheid are routinely used to describe what's going on over there.
Multiple European nations have stepped to recognize support for PAlestinian statehood.
It's going to take a LOT of pressure to burst that bubble...
