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RESOLUTION CONCERNING IRAQ

January 15, 2003

The New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, Service Employees International Union has over 22,000 members in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts.  Our members spend their working lives giving care to the sick, the elderly and the disabled.  We work in both the public and private sectors.  We care about human life and we care about our country.  We participate fully in our communities, in our state and local politics and government, in our religious institutions and in our union.  As a union and as patriotic Americans, we are obligated to educate ourselves about current affairs that affect our members, our families and our patients.  We are obliged to make our opinions known to our representatives.  Through this resolution we are addressing an issue of overriding concern to us  the possibility of a war on Iraq initiated by our government.

After discussion and debate in our Delegate Assembly we adopt the following positions concerning a possible war with Iraq:

WHEREAS, the principal victims of any military action in Iraq will be the sons and daughters of working families serving in the military who will be put in harms way, and innocent Iraqi civilians who have already suffered so much; and

WHEREAS, we have no quarrel with the ordinary working men, women and children of Iraq, or any other country; and

WHEREAS, the billions of dollars spent to stage and execute this war are being taken away from our schools, hospitals, housing and Social Security; and

WHEREAS, the war is a pretext for attacks on labor, civil, immigrant and human rights at home; and

WHEREAS, Bush's drive for war serves as a cover and distraction for the sinking economy, corporate corruption and layoffs; and

WHEREAS, such military action is predicted actually to increase the likelihood of retaliatory terrorist acts; and

WHEREAS, there is no convincing link between Iraq and Al Qaeda or the attacks on September 11, and neither the Bush administration nor the U.N. inspections have demonstrated that Iraq poses a real threat to Americans; and

WHEREAS, unilateral, preemptive war against Iraq threatens the peaceful resolution of disputes among states, jeopardizing the safety and security of the entire world, including Americans; and

WHEREAS, labor has had an historic role in fighting for justice;

NOW, THEREFORE, we resolve as follows:

1.We oppose unilateral or preemptive war against Iraq.

2.We call on our government to use all possible peaceful means to contain and deter Iraq from developing or using weapons of mass destruction.

3.We call on our government to respect the processes of the United Nations and to honor its decrees concerning military action in Iraq.

4.We support our sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters who are in military service, and we want them to know that while we oppose the war we do not oppose them.