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UA 399 Plumbers Call For Defense Of Honduran Trade Unionists And Democracy
UA 399 Plumbers Call For Defense Of Honduran Trade Unionists And Democracy
TAKE ACTION TO PROTECT TRADE UNIONISTS AND DEFEND DEMOCRACY IN HONDURAS
Adopted by Plumbers and Steamfitters UA Local 393 in San Jose, CA 7/8/09
WHEREAS: the AFL-CIO has expressed solidarity with the three union
federations of Honduras -- the Unitary Central of Honduran Workers (CUTH),
the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH) and the General Workers Central
(CGT) - and with the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA),
representing over 45 million workers of this hemisphere, in condemning the
military coup that resulted in the illegal ouster of democratically-elected
President Manuel Zelaya; and
WHEREAS: the AFL-CIO has denounced the coup as an unconscionable attack on
the fundamental rights and liberties of the Honduran peopleŠin flagrant
violation of the most basic democratic principles and of the rule of law
and has called upon the U.S. government and the international community,
particularly the Organization of American States and the United Nations, not
only to condemn the coup and withhold recognition of the current government,
but to make every effort to help achieve restitution of constitutional order
and reinstatement of the democratically elected president; and
WHEREAS: the AFL-CIO reports reliable eyewitness testimony that the
thousands of people from civil society organizations, including trade
unions, who assemble to demand that democratic order be restored and the
president returned, have been tear-gassed by the armed forces, with many
injured and arrested. Late word (7/7/09) is that two protesters have been
killed, death squads are threatening activists and media people, lists have
been reported of trade union leaders who are under threat and whose safety
is at risk and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called upon the Obama
administration to do all it can within its diplomatic powers to ensure that
all Hondurans, particularly trade unionists and social activists denouncing
the coup, are safe, secure and will not be victimized by violence and
repression; and
WHEREAS: The coup was led, on behalf of the corporate and financial elite,
by Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velazquez and Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, graduates of the
School of the Americas which the AFL-CIO has in the past said should be
closed as "a relic of a past era of violence" that "undermines U.S.
government efforts" by "training of Latin American officers in practices
which have led to the violation of human rights" and "is out of step with
the emerging climate of democracy and human rights throughout the region;"
and
WHEREAS: It is longstanding AFL-CIO policy that "No U.S. military assistance
shall be provided to any country practicing terror against its own people."
Therefore Be It RESOLVED that we call upon President Barack Obama to take
immediate action to cut off all military, development and economic aid to Honduras
Until President Manuel Zelaya is restored to his democratically elected office, to
then support bringing the coup plotters to justice and to investigate, and take
appropriate action against, any U. S. official who may have been involved in this
criminal, violent, and internationally destabilizing assault on democracy: and
Be It FURTHER RESOLVED that we ask for concurrence in this resolution on the
Part of the Labor Councils to which we are affiliated, the California Labor Federation,
the U. A., and the AFL-CIO, and that we send this resolution to the President and to
our Senators and Representatives in Congress.
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