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Israel Apartheid Week launches – but where are the unions?

By admin

Today begins the 9th annual ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ in the UK and soon in other countries. The main event in London is sponsored by a number of pro-Palestinian student groups but not, apparently, any union. A quick search of British trade union websites shows no awareness of this week — which is the main event in… »

UK: Union leaders tell supermarkets to boycott settlement products

By admin

According to the Morning Star, seven trade union leaders have issued a call on Britain’s supermarkets to cease purchasing products from company’s which benefit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.  They write: “We note that the Co-operative supermarket pledged to end trade with Israeli agricultural export companies that operate in settlements.  We urge all… »

Len McCluskey, head of Britain’s largest union, responds to critics on Israel and Palestine

By admin

Several weeks ago we reported that a pro-Israel lobbying group in the UK had launched an appeal to supporters to write to Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, the country’s largest trade union, to protest the union’s one-sided view of the recent clashes between Israel and Hamas.  McCluskey has now responded, and Luke Akehurst,… »

Pro-Israel UK group targets Unite, accusing it of supporting Hamas

By ericlee

We Believe in Israel is a grassroots network in the U.K. launched in 2011 following a mass meeting in London attended by over 1,500 participants and supported by 26 community organisations. Though considered to be “pro-Israel”, the group explicitly supports the call for an independent Palestinian state, saying on its website that it “desire[s] peace… »

TULIP and TUFI challenge the pro-Hamas line in British unions

By ericlee

On Tuesday this week, a fringe meeting called by Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI) and TULIP was held in Brighton at the hotel next door to the conference centre where Unite the union was holding its annual event.  Why not in the conference centre itself?  Because Unite, unlike sister unions GMB and CWU, refused… »

British union leaders call for global unions to adopt BDS position

By ericlee

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has finally published the statement of a delegation of  a half dozen British trade union leaders representing five trade unions (Unite, RMT, TSSA, PCS, and Napo). The trade unionists involved were: Gerry Doherty – General Secretary TSSA; Simon Dubbins – Director International Department, UNITE the Union; Garry Hassell – Executive RMT; Shaun… »

Unite – Britain’s largest union – votes to boycott Israel

By ericlee

According to this report in the Jewish Chronicle, Britain’s largest trade union, Unite, has voted to boycott Israel.  Support for the boycott resolution was unanimous.  Stephen Scott of Trade Union Friends of Israel is quoted as saying “All round, you now have a major player supporting the boycott and the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, and there… »

Histadrut wins big for low-paid cleaners and security guards

By andrew

The Israeli trade union federation, the Histadrut, believes many fly-by-night cleaning and security companies that violate labour laws  and put draconian  clauses into their job contracts -  such as docking employees for equipment they break accidentally  - will soon be forced out of business because of new laws effective from the start of 2010. Legislative… »

The Miami Five and the Gaza One

By admin

If you visit the website of Britain’s largest trade union, Unite, you’ll find a list of campaigns the union supports. Those campaigns are almost always the kinds of things you’d expect the giant manufacturing trade union to support, such as saving jobs at Vauxhall, building affordable housing, and protecting the NHS. But in the middle… »