By Mary Greene and Andrew Grossman
Workers and unions in the United States are denouncing the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and condemning the US imperialist support for the murderous Israeli state. This comes despite the repression against workers speaking out, and against the union bureaucracies’ continued support for the imperialist offensive against the Palestinian people’s resistance.
The United Electrical workers union is the first national union to call for a ceasefire, condemning the US military financing of Israel and the blockade of Gaza. They issued the call alongside United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 and have asked workers broadly to sign onto their statement. More recently, the American Postal Workers Union became the largest US union to call for a ceasefire, representing more than 200,000 workers.
Healthcare workers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles have marched with banners reading “Healthcare workers against genocide in Gaza” and have issued statements condemning Israel for the slaughter of hospital patients and calling for a ceasefire.
Tech workers at Amazon and Google are calling for the companies to cancel their AI project for the Israeli military called “Project Nimbus.” Most recently, Detroit charter bus drivers allegedly staged a “sick out” and left stranded hundreds attempting to attend the November 14th “Stand With Israel” rally in Washington DC. The drivers are already being slandered as “anti-Semitic” in the monopoly media.
Starbucks Workers United, the Starbucks employee union under the larger Workers United union, has been sued in federal court by the Starbucks Corporation following a post made by SWU in early October on X, formally Twitter. The post by the union simply read “Solidarity with Palestine.”
This post was met with fierce condemnation from the corporation which stated vaguely that “Starbucks believes all Israelis and Palestinians deserve safety, freedom from violence, and the opportunity to thrive.” What followed was Starbucks filing a lawsuit in the Iowa federal court for trademark infringement, insisting that the union stop using the name “Starbucks Workers United” and the logo the union uses which resembles a Starbucks logo. In response, SWU president Lynne Fox commented, “Starbucks is seeking to exploit the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East to bolster the company’s anti-union campaign.”
The Seattle-area Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO unanimously passed a mid-October resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians, and calling for an investigation into any union involvement in the war. The AFL-CIO swiftly overturned the resolution and then sent a message to all its labor councils warning them not to oppose the bureaucracy’s support for the genocide. The AFL-CIO has large sums of money invested in the Israeli state and has long worked with the CIA to oppress workers in the third world.
On October 9th the Connecticut executive director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Kooper Caraway, attended a Pro-Palestinian rally where he remarked “…our enemies are the CEOs who are cutting our pay and benefits,” and “Our enemies are the politicians who lock our people up and leave them to sleep on the streets. Our enemies are not in Gaza. Our comrades are in Gaza.” After the remarks came under fire from supporters of the Israeli apartheid regime, the SEIU distanced itself from Caraway and forced him to resign from his post.
