A Letter from Local 600 Leadership on Recent Protests of Police Brutality

Dear ICG, 

For the last few weeks we have been focused on safety protocols for getting back to work. Meanwhile, it continued to be unsafe to be a person of color in our society, disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and repeatedly subject to random violence and death. As long as any individual citizen or member of law enforcement is allowed to act on their racist beliefs with impunity, we all bear some responsibility for the tragic outcome.

Speak out. Support organizations that defend free speech and denounce racism. Demonstrate peacefully. Be careful and stay safe.   Do this whoever you are and wherever you live. Acknowledge that even if you have never experienced racism it is an open wound in our country that won't heal unless we all do our part. Doing nothing is complicity, and it is too late for that.

Stop whatever you are doing and imagine having COVID-19 ravage your community where many are without health insurance or access to decent care with a mortality rate many times higher than your percentage of the population.

Stop whatever you are doing and imagine jogging through your neighborhood, cutting through a construction site on your run, and suddenly being chased by cars and trucks, being attacked by strangers who then shoot you as you attempt to flee.

Stop whatever you are doing and sit still for nine minutes. Now imagine that during that whole time you are being forced to lie on the ground by a police officer who keeps you from breathing. Now hold your breath as long as you can.

And while all of that happens, imagine nobody seems to care.

Good unions have a social justice heartbeat, and don't allow silence as an option. Inaction is surrendering to bigotry, division and a hopeless future.

We must vote for leaders who will speak the truth rather than fan the flames of hatred. Choose a future that includes what is overdue, "inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.'

The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement traditionally has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.  
-A. Philip Randolph

John Lindley
National President

Dejan Georgevich
National Vice President
 
Christy Fiers
First National Vice President
 
Baird Steptoe
Second National Vice President

Stephen Wong
National Secretary-Treasurer

Jamie Silverstein
National Assistant Secretary-Treasurer

Deborah Lipman
National Sergeant-at-Arms

Rebecca Rhine
National Executive Director
 
Chaim Kantor
Associate National Executive Director/Eastern Region Director

Alex Tonisson
Western Region Director

Xiomara Comrie
Assistant Western Region Director

Theresa Khouri
Acting Central Region Director

Heather Pearson
In-House Counsel