“The Greater Seattle Local, American Postal Workers Union recently called upon Congressional Representatives Jim McDermott [1] (D-WA-7), Jay Inslee [2] (D-WA-1), Adam Smith [3] (D-WA-9), Dave Reichert [4] (R-WA-8), Rick Larsen [5] (R-WA-2) and Norm Dicks [6] (D-WA-6) to institute an impeachment investigation in the House of Representatives into the actions of Bush and Cheney, and to support the resolution already introduced by Representative Dennis Kucinich [7], (D-OH-10) H Res 333 [8].”
A CALL FOR AN IMPEACHMENT INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTIONS OF PRESIDENT BUSH AND VICE-PRESIDENT CHENEY
WHEREAS, there is a high probability that the Bush Administration has committed impeachable offenses, including the following: justifying war with false and misleading statements in an effort to deceive the people of the United States and the U.S. Congress; undermining the rightful authority of Congress to declare war; directing or authorizing the National Security Agency and various other agencies within the intelligence community to conduct electronic surveillance outside of the statutes Congress has prescribed as the exclusive means for such surveillance; allowing and condoning the use of torture; and issuing over 1200 signing statements declaring the President’s right to interpret laws passed by Congress as he sees fit, and
WHEREAS, in all of this, the President and Vice-President have acted in violation of their oaths of office and the U.S. Constitution, and
WHEREAS, Congress has a solemn duty to provide oversight of the executive branch on behalf of the American people, and failure to investigate impeachable offenses will establish a precedent of no accountability for similar actions by any future administrations, and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Constitution provides for a means for the American people through their Congressional or State representatives to call for investigations of improper or illegal actions committed by the executive branch, therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Greater Seattle Local, American Postal Workers Union call on Congressional Representatives Jim McDermott, Jay Inslee, Adam Smith, Dave Reichert, Rick Larsen and Norm Dicks to cause to be instituted in the House of Representatives proceedings for an impeachment investigation into the actions of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, and/or to support House Resolution 333, which calls for impeachment proceedings against Vice-President Cheney, and be it further
RESOLVED, that this resolution be forwarded to the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council and the Washington State Labor Council for action by those bodies.
6/7/07
working brothers & sisters: Hear that “sucking sound”? The wars this nation is in plus the high price of petro is sucking the dollars right out of this nation that are needed to support your jobs and those of your friends. Add to that the trade policies we have that foster a huge foreign trade deficit and we are looking at a grim future!
So how is making a resolution ‘spending your Union dollars’???
give me a break! Most of these meetings are by individuals who after work go and talk about issues.
Good for them for realizing that Bush and Cheney are after your middle class jobs! That they are after the children of middle class employees and their children to serve in a war that was based on a lie.
These Union folk are trying to support you and your families or do you think that your jobs should just be thrown away?
If you would go to meetings you might understand the information that they have to deal with. You might understand that they are fighting for your rights by pointing out that BUsh and Cheney who are throwing away our rights as citizens should be investigated.
Their actions have affected lives all over. He shouldn’t even be the President because some corrupt members of the Republican Party took part in caging which disenfranchesized many voters who were eligible to vote…many of them who are in the military!
If you want Bush and Cheney to keep on keeping on why don’t you just speed things up by quitting your union protected job. I am so tired of hypocrites saying that this is a liberal issue and then acting as tho it doesn’t affect them at all. If this were true…you would find a job somewhere else. Please go and find this wonderful job for yourself right now…you don’t deserve all the time that these Union folk spend on protecting your job. You are using the protected benefits that they have fought for and spitting in the eye of the folks that are ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING!
Go work at WalMart…they have the exact same ideals as you do.
Go…
what is stopping you from going???
hmmmm?
It’s just another way our locals liberal base alienate there membership. These actually are personal views of just a few of our membership. Unfortunatly they are the vocal ones. It is fine to voice your opinion and have your view point but don’t drag everyone along..and DON’T spend our dues money on your cause..Put it to a paper ballot instead of stacking the GMM with your bud’s…
Yeah well hoorah and let’s just go thru life blindly charging up hills, without any concern for the end result, shall we? This country is truly goin down the tubes…..
This is EXACTLY why I quit the liberal-biased Union!!!!!!! Pieced of scum buckets that they are!!!!
sounds familiar, i appreciate your response. it is not the first story of that nature i have heard of the apwu. speaking as a union rep for npmhu myself, i will not comment further on the state of the apwu out of respect for individual clerks around the nation. i would call to all union members to check http://www.bwint.org or the AFL-CIO Weblog for the story of an indonesian union chairman arrested and allowed to be beaten while in custody for participating in a workers rights rally, currently in custody since may 1st. this guy was just peacefully demonstrating and he is behind bars. its a hard road and we should feel honored to have a voice and truly be concerned how that voice is used on our behalf……….
Brian: I believe it is the actions of a few in the union. I’m in the Seattle District and in our plant we’re now down to 14 members. Our steward just set a new record by working 4 consective days in a pay period. The only union business he’s interested involves his personal pocket. If he doesn’t personally benefit, he doesn’t file. We’ve had 2 previous stewards working for him resign from their post and the union.
that’s exactly my point, that if the bush administration has done something directly affecting labor, maybe we should be focusing on those issues with a realistic and specific goal in mind that might improve the unions position. an impeachment resolution might be considered overkill and possibly counterproductive to fighting on certain issues…..u know? and u really gotta wonder if that resolution truly reflects the sentiments of all of seattle apwu’s members or just a few individuals ivolved in the union local…….its important to realize that all politicians have a political agenda and that our best interests are not necessarily at the top of their list of concerns……of couse, bush’s actions have affected our union, but what good does a futile attempt at pushing for impeachment do….he’ll be out of office soon enough….the damage has been done over how many years now?…..maybe we should be more worried about who is gonna take his place and what the future may hold……..cuz it hasn’t been lookn to good has it?
The APWU should be impeached for agreeing on a shit ass contract. Casuals love your contract!!!!!!
Interesting that some folks assume that because the Seattle APWU would pass a resolution like this that they must not be working on union business–as if the two were mutually exclusive. Unions are more than grievance-handling machines; they’re also an arena where working people can exercise their prerogatives as citizens. If this resolution reflects the sentiments of Seattle APWU members, they have a right to express it in a resolution. Personally I don’t think a movement to impeach Bush at this late date is the way to go, but it is a point of view I take seriously.
Lest anybody think Bush’s usurpations of power have nothing to do with the postal service–consider his end-run around the Congressional mandate for continued universal mail service last December. Bush signed the bill, then had his flunkies on the POstal Board of Governors initiate wholesale contracting out of city delivery.
The first thing i notice, about what was cited against the bush administration, is that there aren’t any labor issues or concerns mentioned in the entire call for impeachment. With all of the serious challenges faced by the labor movement in this country today. Whats the justification for a local to embark on such a crusade. Does political posturing like this help our movement at all? Union efforts should be focused on securing a stable place in our society for labor…..The powers that be have been very proactive, under the Bush Administration, in taking many actions to undermine the labor movement in our country. There have been many reductions in staffing and funding to various vital government agencies that commonly handle labor related issues. a number of valid labor issues have been buried and bogged down in the bureaucratic red tape. I saw a statistic that said workers in america have gone from over 30% union, down to less than 10% union during the bush administration. another statistic stated that the average corporate executive received over a 12% increase of wage on average, while the laborers only receive from 2% ot 4% increase of wage on average. it is a great injustive to the american citizens that the individuals actually performing the labor and physically contributing to the health or our economy are not treated fairly and equitably. its no wonder that “the rich continue to get rich and the poor commonly just stay poor” in this country, because some of our so-called union leaders get sidetracked. It should seriously be considered whether or not an official call for impeachment from local union officers is appropriate and if it is the proper forum for such discussion. our efforts should be focused on accomplishing goals for the members of the union. yall lose focus and get off track from everything that your past membership and leadership has worked so hard to achieve, alot of progress might be slipped out from under you while your not payin attention….of course we have a right as u.s. citizens to address such concerns with our elected political officials in congress. a union should be addressing labor oriented issues on the workers (memberships) behalf, not getting sidetracked in a big political debate….what about losing thousands of jobs to automation…..what about the utilization of low wage and no benefit casual employees full time in lieu of career employees (which is a giant step backward for the labor movement) what about outsourcing efforts, consolidation efforts, workers rights, occupational safety and health concerns, what about preserving the union for the stability of future members…what about the future….the list goes on and on…….i wouldnt be surprised if a local membership wanted to impeach their own union leaders for wasting valuable effort getting mixed up with national politics on largely non-labor related issues, when they should be focused on representing their own members………it is also very important to realize that, if you actually are going to try to send a message like that to congress, you would be alot better off having full participation and solidarity from the membership, if it was ever going to be effective in any way, shape, or form. political debates on such issues inherently involve difference of opinions which would undermine alot of the effectiveness, and unity, that it might have had in the first place. it would probably be alot easier for the membership to get behind issues that directly effect their careers versus general issues affecting the entire country. i mean what is that? sounds like an ego motivated endeavor….cmon people cant we focus on our own issues…..alot of good points were raised and i do not necessarily disagree with seattle area apwu…but i would have to disagree that it is in the best interests of a local to get involved with something like that, dont you guys have any arbitrations to work on or anything?…..must be nice to even have the time……good luck with that…..
the APWU should loose their tax exempt status for this
typical left-wingers demanding impeachment of the current administration over BS. I think the Seattle APWU ought to be more concerned with what is going on in the USPS rather than waste time and money on this BS. The President did NOT lie about those WMDs like these left-wingers claim, yet they believed President Clinton when he said Iraq had WMDs.
This will get things rolling (not). I guess this is all the Seattle APWU can do since they are obviously not working on any grievances or improving working conditions.
Who must we contact on this issue, the issue of surveillance and the death of an employee because of the surveillance? Second question is when this happens, how can we get Whistle Blower protection?