AFL-CIO Executive Council Resolution #53
www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/convention/2005/res_53.cfm

The War in Iraq

The AFL-CIO supports the brave men and women deployed in Iraq, which include our members in all branches of the armed services.

Our soldiers — the men and women risking their lives in Iraq — come from America’s working families. They are our sons and daughters, our sisters and brothers, our husbands and wives. They deserve leadership that fully values their courage and sacrifice. And they deserve a commitment from our country’s leaders to bring them home as quickly as possible. An unending military presence will waste lives and resources, undermine our nation’s security and weaken our military.

We have lost over 1,700 brave Americans in Iraq to date and Iraqi civilian casualties are in the thousands. In recent months, the insurgency has increasingly focused its terror on the Iraqi people, engaging in a deliberate campaign to frustrate their aspirations to take control of their own destiny. These aspirations were clearly demonstrated earlier this year when Iraqis defied widespread intimidation and escalating violence by turning out in the millions to elect a new Iraqi interim government tasked with writing a constitution. The AFL-CIO applauds the courage of the Iraqi people and unequivocally condemns the use of terror in Iraq and indeed anywhere in the world.

No foreign policy can be sustained without the informed consent of the American people. The American people were misinformed before the war began, and have not been informed about the reality on the ground and the very difficult challenges that lie ahead.

It is long past time for the Administration to level with the American people and for Congress to fulfill its constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities. The AFL CIO supports the call from Members of Congress for the establishment of benchmarks in the key areas of security, governance, reconstruction, and internationalization.

Since the beginning of the war almost two and a half years ago, the AFL-CIO has emphasized that the support and participation of a broad coalition of nations, and the United Nations, are vital to building a democratic Iraq. Greater security on the ground remains an unmet precondition for such efforts to succeed.


The AFL-CIO calls on the international community to help the Iraqi people build its capacity to maintain law and order through a concerted international effort to train Iraqi security and police forces.

Future efforts to rebuild the country are hampered by the weight of the massive foreign debt accumulated under the Saddam Hussein regime. The AFL-CIO calls for cancellation of Saddam’s foreign debt without any conditions imposed upon the people of Iraq, who suffered under the regime that was supported by these loans. Further, the AFL CIO calls for the cancellation of reparations imposed as a result of wars waged by Saddam Hussein’s regime and the return of all Iraqi property and antiquities taken during the war and occupation.

The bedrock of any democracy is a strong, free, democratic labor movement. That is true in the United States and Iraq.

Our returning troops should be afforded all resources and services available to meet their needs. Our members should return to their jobs, with seniority and benefits.

The AFL-CIO calls on Congress and President Bush to expand benefits for veterans and assist those affected by military base closings, including a G.I. Bill for returning Iraq veterans and a Veterans Administration housing program that meets current needs.

The AFL-CIO supports the efforts of Iraqi workers to form independent labor unions. hi the absence of an adequate labor law, the AFL-CIO calls on the Iraqi government, as well as domestic and international companies operating in Iraq, to respect internationally recognized International Labor Organization standards that call for protecting the right of workers to organize free of all government and employer interference and the right to organize and bargain collectively in both the public and private sector. These rights must be extended to include full equality for working women.

The AFL-CIO condemns the fact that Saddam’s decree No.150 issued in 1987 that abolished union rights for workers in the extensive Iraqi public sector has not been repealed. Under current laws, payroll deductions for union dues are not even permitted.

The AFL-CIO calls on the Iraqi government to place as a top priority the adoption of a new labor law that conforms to international labor standards to replace the old anti- worker laws and decrees.

Despite legal obstacles, Iraq’s workers and their institutions are already leaders in the struggle for democracy. Trade unionists are being targeted for their activism, and some have paid for their valor with their lives. The AFL-CIO condemns these brutal acts of intimidation.

The AFL-CIO has a proud history of solidarity with worker movements around the world in their opposition to tyranny. In concert with the international trade union movement, the AFL-CIO will continue to provide our full solidarity to Iraq’s workers as they lead the struggle for an end to the violence, and a more just and democratic nation.

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King County (Seattle) Labor Council
Resolution in Support of an Immediate End to the Occupation of Iraq -- Adopted on July 20, 2005

Whereas the King County Labor Council AFL-CIO supports the men and women in our armed forces even if we do not support President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq, and

Whereas the Bush Administration carried out an invasion of Iraq under the pretense that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and therefore posed an immediate threat to the security of the United States, and yet no evidence has been found that Iraq had these weapons or the capability to deploy them, and

Whereas the war and military occupation of Iraq have cost the lives of over 1,500 U.S. and allied troops, the wounding and disabling of thousands more, the deaths by some estimates of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians, and the devastation of the entire country, and

Whereas many U.S. military personnel are union members or family of union members, who have faced extraordinary danger with courage and made huge sacrifices in this war, and bringing them home now is the best means of protecting them, and

Whereas the Bush Administration has used the Iraq war and national security hysteria as a pretext to create a climate of fear at home, to restrict civil liberties and to attack the rights of workers and unions, and

Whereas the war and occupation have cost over $200 billion dollars, leading directly to cuts in social and human services, education and even benefits and health care for the veterans of this and other conflicts, while war spending has lined the pockets of immensely wealthy anti-labor corporations, and

Whereas conditions of poverty, inequality and political repression must be confronted through civil, economic and diplomatic means and will not be solved through the exercise of military might, and

Whereas seven national unions (SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, APWU, GCIU, NPMHU/LIUNA, UE) and numerous state labor federations, central labor councils, local unions and other labor bodies, representing millions of union members, have passed resolutions calling for our troops to be brought home, and

Whereas AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has asked the labor movement at every level to discuss important issues, challenges and problems we confront in preparation for the national convention in July, and given that the issues of war and peace, and the destruction of the social safety net, are among the most important challenges we confront, therefore be it

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on President Bush to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately, and to reject the doctrine and practice of preemptive war, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on President Bush to support the democratic trade unions and the rights of Iraqi workers to democratically form trade unions to improve their economic and social base and recognize that the formation of democratic unions is a critical element in the development of a democratic process, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on President Bush and the Congress to immediately turn over responsibility for security and policing to the Iraqi people in an effort to relieve the American troops of this ongoing responsibility, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on Congress and President Bush to expand benefits for veterans and assist those affected by military base closings, including a G.I. Bill for returning Iraq veterans and a VA housing program that meets current market needs and adequate funding of the VA health care system, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council will assist union members and their families who are called upon to serve in Iraq and returning veterans by identifying and providing information about resources and services available to meet their needs, by advocating for their interests, and by protecting their jobs, seniority and benefits, and calls upon other unions, labor councils and state labor federations to organize such support at the local level, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on the National AFL-CIO to demand an immediate end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the return of U.S. troops to their homes and families, and the reordering of national priorities toward peace and the human needs of our people, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on Congress and President Bush to re-direct our economic and technological resources, which are being misspent in Iraq, toward economic policies which will improve wages and working conditions and protect labor rights, train workers and young people for good jobs in the changing U.S. economy, rebuild our national infrastructure, and develop energy independence, and be it further

Resolved that the King County Labor Council calls on Congress and President Bush to restructure our armed forces into a deterrent, rather than offensive force, with peace keeping and civil administration, which will work together with the UN to combat terrorism and protect the security of the American people, and be it finally

Resolved that the King County Labor Council shall make this resolution available to its members and to our elected political representatives.