Whereas: Over the past year, Black communities and their allies across the country have been in almost continuous rebellion against police brutality, focusing their protest on the police killings of unarmed Black men, and

Whereas: From their response to the Ferguson, Missouri, death of Mike Brown, to that of Eric Garner in New York City, to that of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the “Black Lives Matter” movement has been challenging systematic racial profiling, harassment, mass incarceration, and brutality against working class Black communities by city police departments, and

Whereas: Analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union shows that police are killing an average of three people a day and that a Black man is 21 times more likely to be killed by police than a white man; and

Whereas:  The labor union movement has mobilized solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, most recently in a May 1^st strike by the International Longshoreman’s Association local 1422 and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union local 10 against racist police brutality, in solidarity with the Baltimore uprising, under the slogan “an injury to one is an injury to all,” and

Whereas:  The American Postal Workers Union issued a statement during the Ferguson rebellion which stated, in part — “Unions stand for good living-wage jobs for all workers, respect for and equality of all people, and justice in the workplace and in the neighborhoods in which we live. As postal workers, we live and work in every community across the nation, including Ferguson. At a time when we are reaching out to the people throughout the nation to defend the public Postal Service and good union jobs, we must also stand with our communities. Martin Luther King put it so well when he said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” and

Whereas: The labor movement is also often harassed and victimized by police, especially on picket lines and during strikes and protests, and

Whereas: The joining of the labor movement with the Black Lives Matter movement  to resist police brutality can only strengthen each, therefore be it

Resolved:  That the National Association of Letter Carriers declare its solidarity with the aims of the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice and police accountability and seek to educate its members about our common struggle.

Resolution adopted by 5,400 letter carrier delegates at the 70th Biennial Convention of the NALC, Los Angeles, CA, August 15, 2016