December 16, 2015 — Los Angeles, California
AJC Los Angeles praises the United Auto Workers (UAW) International for overturning a pro-Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) resolution passed by the University of California Student-Workers Union in December 2014. The local union, UAW 2865, represents graduate student workers at all University of California campuses.
“We applaud the UAW International for its moral and responsible decision, which nullifies last year’s deeply misguided graduate student workers’ resolution targeting Israel,” said Dean Schramm, President of AJC’s Los Angeles Region. “The role of the UC Graduate Student Union is to improve the working conditions of UC graduate students, not to engage in polarizing political propaganda and misinformation promoted by the BDS movement, which seeks to delegitimize Israel's right to exist.” A graduate student who is a member of UAW 2865 filed an appeal with the UAW International in Detroit in March 2015 with the assistance of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP’s Los Angeles office.
AJC had previously condemned as counterproductive to Middle East peace the UAW 2865 pro-BDS resolution when it was adopted a year ago. The resolution called on the University of California and UAW International to divest from companies doing business in Israel and to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
