United Auto Workers call for cease-fire in Israel-Hamas war

The United Auto Workers on Friday became the highest-profile union in the country to call for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas, buoying calls within labor movement to stop the fighting and setting the powerful union apart from President Joe Biden on a key policy issue.

“I am proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the @UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” union president Shawn Fain said Friday in a post on the social media platform X.

The announcement nearly two months into the war sets UAW apart from much of the labor and Democratic establishment, including Biden — who has still not yet received an endorsement from the UAW, even after he showed the union historic support this fall.

United Electrical Workers and UFCW Local 3000, which says it represents 50,000 workers in the Pacific Northwest, have been circulating a petition calling for the labor movement to demand a cease-fire. But those organizations are in the minority, as most of the largest labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, have aligned with Biden in rejecting calls for a cease-fire.

Fain has made clear that endorsing former President Donald Trump in 2024 isn’t on the table. But the UAW’s lack of endorsement so far for Biden also marks a break from the AFL-CIO, which earlier in the campaign issued its earliest-ever presidential endorsement in favor of the current president.

Biden visited the picket line during the auto workers’ strike against Detroit auto companies in September, an unprecedented show of solidarity with the union. Both Trump and Biden have fought for the votes of the blue collar, Rust Belt autoworkers that the UAW represents.