Trade Unions

The global trade union movement has consistently demonstrated its courage and commitment to human rights by adopting concrete, ground-breaking labour-led sanctions against oppressive regimes in a show of effective solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world. Adopting BDS measures has become the most prominent form of trade union solidarity with the Palestinian civil society in general, and the Palestinian working class in particular.

All of the major Palestinian trade unions, federations and factions are signatories to the 2005 call for BDS and members of the Palestinian BDS National Committee.

Trade unions have endorsed BDS and organise consumer boycott or divestment campaigns within the labour movement or use their position as large and important civil society organisations to call for sanctions against Israel.

Dockworkers have been especially proactive in their support for Palestinian rights. In the wake of the murderous Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla in summer 2010, and in response to an appeal from the Palestinian trade union movement, the Swedish Dockworkers union blocked more than 500 containers weighing approximately 500 tons during a week-long blockade of exports to Israel and Israeli goods and dockworkers in Oakland, California respected a labour and community picket by refusing to unload an Israeli cargo ship for twenty-four hours. These actions followed those of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union which pioneered the boycott against Israeli maritime trade in Febuary 2009 by refusing to offload a ship in Durban in protest of Israel’s war of aggression on the Gaza Strip. The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) promoted the “Israeli Apartheid Free Zone” to ensure their municipalities have no commercial, academic, cultural, sporting or other linkages whatsoever with the Israeli regime. Similar campaigns led by trade union activists have sprung across the world including in Ireland and Australia.

Palestinian trade unions have also called for their international colleagues to sever relations with the racist Israeli trade union, the Histadrut. Scores of individual unions and the national congresses of trade unions in Scotland, Ireland and South Africa have either severed relations or started a procedure to do so.

News

Report: Third National BDS Conference, Hebron, December 17

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On 17 December 2011, Palestinians gathered in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank for the Third National Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Conference

Statements

Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) stands in solidarity with UK public sector strike

Solidarity from Occupied Palestine with UK public sector strike Occupied Palestine, November 29 – The Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (PTUC-BDS), the largest coalition of the Palestinian trade union movement, stands in solidarity with the millions … Continue reading 

Statements

Palestinian trade union movement salutes National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) London Transport Regional Council for joining Derail Veolia and Alstom Campaign

The Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (PTUC-BDS) salutes RMT London Transport Regional Council for initiating campaign against Alstom over its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail

Statements

PTUC-BDS Welcomes TUC Policy Renewing Commitment to Implement BDS Campaigns and Urging Unions to Review Relations with the Histadrut

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), representing 6.5 million workers in the UK, has affirmed its support for BDS and called on “all unions on the basis of this policy to review their bi-lateral relations with all Israeli organisations, including Histadrut”

News

Irish Congress of Trade Unions Maintains Commitment to BDS and Moves Policy Forward

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At its Biennial Delegate Conference this week in Killarney the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, demonstrated its continued commitment to Palestinian solidarity and BDS campaign.

News

Egypt independent trade unions endorse BDS

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Egyptian Independent Union Federation calls on trade union movement to support Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS)

News

New York City Picket Tells Labor Officials to Dump Israel Bonds

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More than fifty labor and anti-apartheid activists participated in a spirited picket of an Israel Bonds “celebration” dinner in New York City

News

Withdraw From Israel Bonds “Celebration”

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U.S. Labor Officials: Stop Scabbing for Apartheid, withdraw from “State of Israel Bonds” fundraiser in New York City on June 13, 2011

News

Withdraw From Israel Bonds "Celebration"

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U.S. Labor Officials: Stop Scabbing for Apartheid, withdraw from “State of Israel Bonds” fundraiser in New York City on June 13, 2011

Statements

Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) formed at historic conference

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The new Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS) is the broadest and most representative body of the Palestinian trade union movement