10,000 signatures reached
To: Terry O'Sullivan, President, Laborers' International; Sean McGarvey, President, North America's Building Trades Unions; Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
Unions, refuse to build Trump's wall.
Petition Text
We, champions of working people, urge leaders and members of North America's Building Trades Unions, Laborers' International, and all labor organizations to refuse to build or design Trump’s 2,000-mile Wall of Hatred on the border between the United States and Mexico.
We ask that unions, which historically fought for the 8-hour day, a sustainable wage, health care and workplace protection, boycott these labor contracts because the wall -- estimated to cost taxpayers 15-40 billion dollars -- will result in pain and suffering for families separated through birth, marriage, and work; undermine diplomacy and trade between US and Mexico; engender ill will between nations and peoples.
Why is this important?
While we, petitioners, understand a desire to make a living, we also recognize that to use one’s skills to advance racism and xenophobia is to rob workers of their great potential to advance social justice and to continue their legacy of fighting for human rights. Rather than spending billions to construct an unnecessary wall when barriers already exist, we should be investing taxpayer dollars to hire union workers for much-needed infrastructure projects that strengthen our communities: water and sewer pipes; roads; bridges; transit systems.
We ask that all unions and their umbrella organizations instruct their members to boycott work on the wall and to, instead, embrace the racial and cultural diversity of America.