This resolution was passed at the January 2025 Quarterly Membership Meeting via Zoom on January 19, 2025.
Resolution: An Injury to One is an Injury to All — Stand with Immigrant Workers
Submitted by Justin Smeltzer
WHEREAS Donald Trump has threatened to carry out a mass deportation campaign during his second term beginning from his first day in office in January 2025; and
WHEREAS immigrant workers have become increasingly policed since the raids on neighborhoods and workplaces that ramped up under President George W. Bush, with deportations reaching record levels under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden; and while Donald Trump sank to new depths, including mass detention camps and the brutal policy of family separation, President Biden maintained and even extended most Trump-era policies, breaking his promise to stop building the border wall and imposing stiffer punishments for those caught crossing the border; and
WHEREAS the responsibility for low wages, unemployment, and underfunded public services lies not with immigrants, but with big business and their two political parties, the Republicans and Democrats who have refused to carry out the reforms to the immigration laws which our union has strongly advocated for, while maximizing the insecurity and uncertainty of working-class life, despite the massive increase in wealth at the top of our society; and
WHEREAS our unions, which are the strongest weapon we have against this growing inequality, are strongest when we stand together on the principle that an injury to one is an injury to all; but are weakened when we allow the dehumanization of immigrants to divide us; and
WHEREAS U.S. foreign policy, driven by the greed for profit, has resulted in mass migrations of peoples to escape its effects, examples include trade deals like NAFTA which have disrupted economies, and military invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, coups and regime change particularly in the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, and presently the support of both establishment parties for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria, all of which have displaced people fearing for their lives; and
WHEREAS climate change, caused by capitalism and its destructive drive for profit, is accelerating these migrations on a global scale; and
WHEREAS significant sectors of the US economy, from agriculture to high-tech, rely on the exploitation of immigrant workers, and history shows that undermining immigrant rights and increasing deportations undermines the conditions and wages of both native-born and immigrant workers by making the immigrant workforce more vulnerable and exploitable while not changing ANY of the underlying conditions that are driving immigration,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that UAWD assist in leading an educational shop floor discussion within UAW locals and for a similar resolution to be passed by the UAW IEB and UAW Locals containing the following demands (model resolution attached):
UAW opposes all anti-immigrant attacks
UAW demands an end to all concentration and/or internment camps for immigrants, and an end to the criminalization of asylum seekers, refugees, and anyone who provides humanitarian aid to them
UAW demands an immediate moratorium on all ICE raids, arrests, deportations, harassment, seizures, and other abuses of undocumented workers
UAW demands an end to all political attacks against the sanctuary city movement and encourages all locals to actively support all efforts in their community to defend immigrants from abuse and harassment
UAW supports the inclusion of immigrants in all current and proposed public healthcare programs, including Medicare for All
UAW commits to pushing for contract language that:
Protects jobs and contract rights regardless of immigration status
Prevents the employer from participating in any and all ICE enforcement programs and obligates the employer to refuse entry to ICE agents who do not possess a valid judicial warrant and to notify the union if contacted by ICE
Requires the employer to supply an independent translator and allow union representation when communicating on important matters with workers not fluent in English
Makes available copies of the contract in each language spoken by employees
In the event of workplace raids by the incoming Trump administration or any other administration, UAW will immediately call for and organize strike action across the labor movement in solidarity, with a demand to immediately end all workplace raids
UAW calls on the AFL-CIO, individual unions, and other workers’ organizations to urgently begin organizing a National Day of Action for immigrant rights, including strikes and mass protests involving all working people, using as inspiration the 2006 Day Without an Immigrant protests, and that UAW will lend all possible support to such efforts
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that UAWD encourages all union members and rank and file workers to get involved in fighting for class solidarity with immigrants, and to participate in public demonstrations in defense of immigrants threatened with mass deportations, including but not limited to, protest actions on January 20th, Inauguration day; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that UAWD commits to campaigning to organize all workers into supporting these efforts to educate and bring forward resolutions in their locals and to build for a grass roots demand that the UAW IEB immediately pass this resolution, which is consistent with the UAW’s historic commitment to human rights, as a powerful restatement that we as a union will not allow attacks on any workers, and that our union believes in and will back up with concrete action that An Injury to One is and Injury to All.