We, the Executive Board of the United Auto Workers Local 2322, are thrilled to endorse Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary.
We organize to improve our material conditions while we struggle for justice and liberation for all. As President, we believe Senator Sanders, and the multi-racial, working class grassroots movement that drives him will be part of creating the political conditions necessary for us to envision justice and organize workers to fight for our collective liberation.
Senator Sanders elevates the issues that our members care about, and he has concrete plans that will materially benefit all of us. He has a consistent track record of standing with organized labor and fighting for the interests of working people for over forty years. Many of our members have great health insurance that has been hard-won through collective bargaining but many of our members do not have access to healthcare through their union contracts, they rely on spouses, family, or the state to access medical care. We believe in #MedicareForAll and eliminating medical debt because healthcare is a human right. When we go to the bargaining table we want to be able to fight for more than scraps. We believe in free childcare for our members who have children or want to have children. We believe in free public education for our student worker members who pay more money back to the university than they make.
Bernie has made a commitment to increase union membership and we know that without a stronger labor movement our power as workers will continue to decline. We believe in racial justice and Bernie’s plan to invest in education instead of incarceration is key to equality. We believe that immigrant rights are workers rights and Bernie’s plan to abolish ICE will drastically decrease the exploitation and threats that workers face on the job due to their immigration status.We believe in the Green New Deal and a just transition to clean energy for workers that centers front line communities, because the climate crisis is an existential threat to our planet and our communities. We believe in taxing the wealthy because as workers we create that wealth and should have a say in how it’s distributed.
Most importantly, we believe in this diverse, multiracial, multigenerational, grassroots movement that brings all of us together to fight for each other, because it is the labor thing to do, and because it is the human thing to do. This movement that has coalesced around Bernie’s campaign inspires us to hold firm to our principles. We encourage all of our members to talk to each other about this critically important election. When workers, organized and unorganized, come together we build the power to change the world.
Not me. Us.
In Solidarity,
UAW Local 2322 Executive Board
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