| We have worked long and hard to build bridges with the Netroots community and will continue to do so. We have reached out to Matt Stoller and other bloggers offering support and opening doors to union officials, including General President Jim Hoffa.
The Netroots community is helping us organize workers and expose the deplorable conditions that workers right here in the U.S. must endure in order to form unions. We, in turn, work to educate our members and others about Progressive issues and candidates. We are on the same side of many issues.
To say that "Now Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters are in on an expansion of an unethical war to new countries," is insulting and without basis.
Yes, this is the first time Hoffa has called for a divestiture of our pension funds from companies that do business in a country, mainly because it is a very complex and difficult thing to do. However, the Teamsters have taken actions against multinational companies that do business in other repressive regimes, including Burma and Guatemala.
Why did Hoffa choose to take this action?
Government authorities in Tehran abducted Mansour Osanloo, president of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs (Vahed) Bus Company, on July 10. He was severely beaten. For more than a month he's been imprisoned in the notorious Evin prison. Mahmoud Salehi, founder of the Saghez Bakery Workers Association, was condemned to a year in prison for his courage in mobilizing workers. He is incarcerated in Kurdistan, far from his family and in danger of dying.
And getting Tehran to respect the right to form unions is something the Teamsters have been working on for more than a year.
Saying we support war is a huge jump from pulling our retirement money out of a country that members of both political parties agree is engaged in activities that threaten the security of troops overseas, neighboring countries and national security.
In fact, "Just last month, the U.S. House of Representatives (led by Democrats) overwhelmingly passed a bill that protects private and public funds that divest shares in companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector."
Like most Americans, the Teamsters support our troops in the field and wish they could return to the safety of their homes and jobs. It is our members who are losing their sons and daughters in this war. And anything we can do to prevent that loss, we will do.
Hoffa said he liked the Netroots because you are "tough on everybody," and we certainly do not shrink from your criticisms. However, creating motives out of thin air is unfair and unjustified. |
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