Labor Unions
Updated 2024-02-26
The US Labor Movement Calls for Ceasefire in Israel and Palestine We, members of the American labor movement, mourn the loss of life in Israel and Palestine. We express our solidarity with all workers and our common desire for peace in Palestine and Israel, and we call on President Joe Biden and Congress to push for an immediate ceasefire and end to the siege of Gaza. We cannot bomb our way to peace. We also condemn any hate crimes against Muslims, Jews, or anyone else.
In issuing this call, U.S. unions are joining the efforts of 13 Congressmembers and others who are calling for an immediate ceasefire. The basic rights of people must be restored. Water, fuel, food, and other humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza, power must be restored, and foreign nationals and Palestinians requiring medical care must be allowed out of Gaza.
The Israeli hostages taken by Hamas must be immediately released. Both Hamas and Israel must adhere to standards of international law and Geneva Convention rules of warfare concerning the welfare and security of civilians. There must be a ceasefire in Gaza. The cycle of violence must stop so that negotiations for an enduring peace proceed. The U.S. must act. We call on President Biden to immediately call for a ceasefire. The road to justice cannot be paved by bombs and war. The road to peace cannot be found through warfare. We commit ourselves to work in solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli peoples to achieve peace and justice.
Union members come from diverse backgrounds, including Jews, Muslims, and Middle Eastern communities. The rising escalation of war and arms sales doesn’t serve the interests of workers anywhere. In the end, we all want a place to call home and for our children to be safe. Working people around the world want and deserve to live free from the effects of violence, war and militarization. Thousands of Americans have joined the groundswell of global solidarity demanding a ceasefire now.
It’s the labor movement’s turn to make our voices heard and demand a ceasefire. Together, we can stand for peace, justice, and a better future for working people everywhere. See the many dozens of Unions that have signed the ceasefire demand, https://secure.everyaction.com/w1qW7B3pek2rTtv9ny5bqw2
2024-01-30 American Federation of Teachers Joins Call for Gaza Cease-Fire The union’s executive council called for a cease-fire after months of pressure from educators across the United States. The result of “significant” input from rank-and-file members of the American Federation of Teachers from across the United States, the 1.72 million-strong union’s executive council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The resolution calls for a “negotiated bilateral cease-fire” that would be guaranteed by the international community, including the U.S. and other countries that are supporting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. “A cease-fire agreement must include the immediate provision of desperately needed food, water, medical care, clothing, emergency shelter, and other humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the release of all hostages abducted by Hamas from Israel on October 7,” reads the statement.
The resolution also reaffirms “the AFT’s support for a two-state solution,” condemns antisemitism and Islamophobia, and demands that all people should be “safe to express dissent” in the United States. “The conflict should not be used as an excuse to wage political attacks on American colleges and universities, or as a pretext to undermine necessary efforts to increase diversity, promote equity, and advance inclusion,” reads the union’s statement.https://www.commondreams.org/news/union-ceasefire-2667126890
2024-01-22 Labor unions are making unprecedented calls for a ceasefire in Gaza Before dawn broke on Jan. 14, hundreds of labor organizers and activists convened at the Port of Oakland for a protest to prevent ships carrying weapons bound for Israel from leaving the docks. Activists from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which co-organized the event, kept the momentum going all day. In the afternoon, 200 workers reportedly refused to cross the picket line to help load the ships.
“The labor movement has the power to disrupt supply chains,” said Zachary Valdez, a union steward with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2110 based in New York. “Workers can shut everything down.” The action was an impressive show of solidarity between the labor movement and the Palestinian cause, one of a number of actions in the Bay Area and across the country co-organized or supported by unions in recent months, including teach-ins and other civil disobedience efforts.https://prismreports.org/2024/01/22/labor-unions-unprecedented-calls-ceasefire-gaza/
2024-01-22 SEIU Becomes Largest US Union to Demand Gaza Cease-Fire With over 25,000 Palestinians killed so far in the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip, the Service Employees International Union on Monday became the largest union in North America to join a growing coalition of labor groups calling for a cease-fire.
“SEIU’s almost 2 million members believe that wherever violence, fear, and hatred thrive, working people cannot,” said Mary Kay Henry, the union’s president, in a statement. “We condemn antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, and hate in all its forms around the world. Our union includes many members and their families—Palestinian and Israeli, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian—who have been impacted by the recent violence.” “As a union family strongly committed to justice and democracy, we believe all people across the globe deserve to live safely and free of fear, with dignity and respect for their human rights, as well as access to food, water, shelter, medicine, and other necessities,” she continued. “SEIU members understand that working people often feel the impact of war most deeply and bear the brunt of its terrible consequences.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/union-ceasefire
2023-11-30 International Trade Unions Urgently call for Ceasefire in Gaza amidst Ongoing Human Rights Violations Delegates at 31st World Congress of Public Services International (PSI) which took place in Geneva on October 14 – 18, 2023 took a strong and clear position when they voted to support Resolutions 48 The war in Israel and Palestine and 32 For a Free and Sovereign Palestine State. The resolutions are a call to action that reaffirm PSI’s affiliates’ commitment to justice, human rights, and the self-determination of all people. These resolutions follow the resolution on Palestinian solidarity: Support for the Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) passed at PSI’s 2012 global congress in Durban, South Africa. https://publicservices.international/resources/news/international-trade-unions-urgently-call-for-ceasefire-in-gaza-amidst-ongoing-human-rights-violations?
2023-11-29 The International Labor Movement Is Mobilizing for a Free Palestine Global labor unions are responding to Palestinian workers’ calls for solidarity and demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Which side are you on?” a worker with the independent New Seasons Labor Union asked other unionized workers at a November 11 rally in Portland, Oregon. “Now normally this means, ‘Are you on the side of the workers, or are you on the side of the bosses….’ But today when we ask what side are you on, we are asking, ‘Are you on the side of the oppressed, or on the side of the oppressor?’”
The rally was organized by the labor coalition Portland Jobs with Justice (JWJ)* and a group of union activists concerned with the growing death toll in Gaza. A recently extended “humanitarian pause” between Israel and Hamas has been in effect since November 24, but as Truthout reported, “Israeli forces have continued killing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza throughout the supposed pause.” Moreover, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said the assault will resume once the temporary truce ends. This means that a true ceasefire has yet to be established.
While many of the groups who joined the rally were familiar to the fight for Palestinian rights, such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), what was notable was that this was a rally by and for the labor movement. “At Portland Jobs with Justice, we mean it when we say ‘solidarity to workers everywhere,’” Jill Pham, the executive director of Portland JWJ, told Truthout. “Palestinian trade unions made a call for labor to take a stand and we’ve answered.” https://truthout.org/articles/the-international-labor-movement-is-mobilizing-for-a-free-palestine/
2023-12-15 Largest Health Union in US Calls for Cease-Fire in Gaza Days after U.S.-backed Israeli forces conducted its latest raid on a hospital in Gaza and as the spread of diseases including meningitis and chickenpox were reported in the besieged enclave, the largest healthcare union in the United States joined the international call for a cease-fire.
The executive council of 1199SEIU, a union that represents more than 450,000 healthcare workers from five states and Washington, D.C., said all parties involved “must commit to negotiating a permanent, just resolution to this conflict which will enable Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and build a future.”
“1199SEIU calls for the immediate cessation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip, to allow for urgent humanitarian relief amid the collapse of the territory’s health and other infrastructure,” said the executive council. “International humanitarian law and the laws of war must be upheld without exception, which include the inviolability of healthcare facilities. War crimes committed by one side of the conflict cannot and do not serve as justification for crimes and breaches of the Geneva Conventions by the other.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/health-union-ceasefire
2023-12-01 UAW Becomes Largest US Union to Back Gaza Cease-Fire Fresh off historic contract victories, the United Auto Workers on Friday became the largest U.S. union to endorse a cease-fire in Gaza as Israel resumed its bombardment of the Palestinian territory following a weeklong pause. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the Contra war, the UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe,” said United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain.
Fresh off historic contract victories, the United Auto Workers on Friday became the largest U.S. union to endorse a cease-fire in Gaza as Israel resumed its bombardment of the Palestinian territory following a weeklong pause. The UAW’s cease-fire call makes the 400,000-member union part of a growing segment of the American labor movement that is pushing for a negotiated end to the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, where U.S.-backed Israeli bombing has killed more than 15,000 people in less than two months. https://www.commondreams.org/news/uaw-cease-fire-gaza
2023-11-16 Why These Teachers Unions Are Demanding a Cease-Fire When asked why her union voted to call for a cease-fire in Gaza, Marcia Howard, a teacher of 24 years, turned to an education metaphor. “It’s an object lesson for the nation and for other laborers,” she said over the phone, ahead of classes at a Minneapolis area high school, where she teaches language and literature to 11th graders. “The challenge has been for the entire working class to move the nation to do the right thing.”
Howard is the acting president of the teachers chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) Local 59. On October 25, her chapter voted at a general membership meeting to pass a resolution urging an immediate cease-fire, rejecting violence against civilians on all sides and condemning “the role our government plays in supporting the system of Israeli occupation and apartheid, which lies at the root of the Palestinian Israeli conflict.” https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/labor-teachers-union-ceasefire-gaza-israel/
2023-11-09 American Postal Workers Union Becomes Largest US Union to Call for Gaza Cease-Fire “We join the calls for an immediate cease-fire, the release of hostages, and urgently needed massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The cries of humanity demand nothing less.”
The American Postal Workers Union on Wednesday became the largest U.S. union to call for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, joining a growing labor movement mobilization against Israel’s assault on the Palestinian enclave.
Leaders of the APWU, which represents more than 200,000 U.S. Postal Service employees and close to 2,000 mail workers in the private sector, said in a statement that their union is “shocked and saddened by the tragic and ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/postal-workers-gaza-cease-fire
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