As US unions take on Israel, some Jewish members can feel attacked instead of protected
With a tight presidential race, left-leaning labor unions are doubling down on a Gaza ceasefire, while some supported an Israeli general strike after Hamas murder of six hostages
Reporter at The Times of Israel
When seven major US labor unions, including the United Auto Workers (UAW), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), issued a joint letter in July demanding that US President Joe Biden adopt an arms embargo against Israel, some saw it as proof that anti-Israel sentiment had gripped a key component of American political life.
“Those unions that have left-oriented memberships have suffered from the general left-wing political drift toward anti-Zionism. Plus, unions have a significant core of activists who work to convince others [of their standpoints],” said Cary Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor emeritus and author of “Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: the Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles.”
Since the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught and ensuing Israel-Hamas war, anti-Israel sentiment has increased in some sectors of the American labor movement — from the aforementioned call for an arms embargo, to calls for divestment from Israel, to accusing Israel of committing genocide.
“There’s no question that unions are an important part of a winning American Democratic coalition, just as Jewish voters are a critical piece for any Democrat running for office, especially in battleground states,” said Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA).
Even as some of the calls to pull support for Israel grow more strident, they likely won’t be enough to derail union support for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris or change the party’s stated policy toward Israel, said Soifer.
“The Democrats have adopted the most pro-Israel platform in history — there are three pages about the importance of Israel-US relations and opposition to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] movement. That’s the position of the Democratic party. So while a small handful of people on the fringe may try to influence [US-Israel ties], it’s not going to change and our candidate is not going to change,” she said.
According to a new JDCA commissioned poll, the future of democracy and abortion are two most important issues for Jewish voters, followed by the economy and inflation, climate change, and national security and foreign policy. Israel ranked as the ninth most important issue for Jewish voters when deciding which candidate to support.
That doesn’t mean rank-and-file members will stop trying to sway policy.
For example, in December 2023 the UAW, which represents more than 6 million workers, became the largest union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the Hamas-held hostages. Although a committee within the union put forth a motion to divest from Israel Bonds, it was voted down by the International Executive Board during its April 30 to May 2 meeting.
UAW president Shawn Fain didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In February, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial organizations (AFL-CIO), representing more than 12 million members, called for a ceasefire. In June the SEIU, which represents two million members, passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire while also “condemning antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all racism, religious persecution, and hate around the world.”
“We condemn the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023, that killed over 1,200 Israelis and others, abducted 240 people, and included other unconscionable acts. We condemn the Israeli military’s war against Palestinians in Gaza,” the statement continued. Since then, it has been determined that 251 hostages were abducted to Gaza by Hamas-led terrorists during the invasion of southern Israel on October 7.
When kindergarten gets political
Yet, even if the most radical resolutions weren’t passed, one can’t dismiss the anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric present in some chapters — particularly those affiliated with education, said Evan Bernstein, the Jewish Federation of North America’s vice president of community relations.
“We see what is happening on college campuses, but even more so with K-12. There is a K-12 school in every city in the United States. What we see in these unions is now trickling into the classroom. We see it more and more, very anti-Israel, very anti-Jewish curriculum getting approved,” Bernstein said.
Last March, the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), which represents 117,000 teachers at public schools, colleges and universities, held a training webinar titled “The Struggle Against Anti-Palestinian Racism.” Some of the topics discussed during the virtual event included why anti-Zionism is not antisemitism and how Israel is a settler-colonial state that needs to be dismantled.
At the time, MTA president Max Page issued a statement saying that as the largest union in New England, members will undoubtedly have “starkly diverging views” and that rather than run from them, people need to engage with them. Page also stressed that the particular viewpoints expressed in individual workshops don’t represent the official views of the MTA.
“Since October 7, many campus local chapters have crossed a line from anti-Zionism to overt hatred and antisemitism. Jewish members in these antisemitic local union chapters feel alienated and shunned, discriminated against by the very unions that are supposed to represent them. They feel very much alone and threatened. The hatred is visceral, unforgiving and relentless,” academic hate-speech expert Nelson said.
About a month after the October 7 massacre, the Harvard Graduate Student Union, a UAW local, signed onto a pro-BDS letter calling on “US labor unions to cut all ties with Israeli unions.”
In July, several anti-Israel resolutions were included in the agenda at the annual convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Among the resolutions were a call for the end of US military assistance to Israel, a ceasefire in Gaza, divestment from Israel, and a resolution that accused Israel supporters of “weaponizing” antisemitism.
Ultimately, under the leadership of AFT president and AFL-CIO member Randi Weingarten, the final resolution omitted any suggestion of Israeli “genocide” or “settler colonial violence.”
Weingarten, who has traveled to Israel multiple times, has consistently opposed BDS resolutions. She also has consistently voiced her opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government.
“As Netanyahu gets worse and worse in terms of his actions in the West Bank and now in Gaza, we continue to support people who support a two-state solution and who support human rights,” Weingarten told The Times of Israel while out campaigning for Harris.
Jewish roots in the labor movement had Israeli ties
American labor has deep roots in the Jewish community; Jewish Americans founded and helped expand unions through the 1900s.
Samuel Gompers, who immigrated to the US from England, led the American Federation of Labor from its founding in 1886 until his death in 1924. David Dubinsky, who immigrated from Belarus, helmed the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) from 1932 through 1966. And Jewish women, from Rose Schneider to Pauline Newman to Clara Lemlich, were instrumental in securing workers’ rights from the early 1900s through the 1960s.
Indeed, in 1964, Newman traveled to Israel on behalf of the ILGWU to gather information about the country’s unions and healthcare system so that she could present her findings to various social reform groups and Jewish groups when she returned stateside. While there, she visited the Kupat Holim Central Hospital in Beersheba.
During these years American union members often donated to the Histadrut, Israel’s national labor federation. However, as demographics in the US shifted and Israel’s government moved toward the right, attitudes among the American rank-and-file also shifted.
“Any detachment unions here have from Israeli labor unions is because those unions have changed and Israel has changed,” Weingarten said.
Nevertheless, Weingarten said she and the AFT continue to work closely with the Histadrut and supported the latter’s call for a general strike after Hamas murdered six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, in late August.
Peter Lerner, the Histadrut’s director general of international relations and a retired IDF lieutenant colonel, acknowledged that relations with US labor organizations are complicated.
“We have complex and deeply professional relationships. While the UAW has been vocal against Israel, it was supportive of the general strike. There is an overwhelming and deep understanding that we need to bring the hostages home and have a ceasefire,” Lerner said.
“Sometimes we don’t see eye to eye, but the issues of workers’ rights transcend that,” he added.
With a matter of weeks until the US presidential election, what’s happening in the unions is important but won’t be the deciding factor, said Soifer.
“The majority of American voters are not one-issue voters and the same is true for Jewish voters — who first valued defense of democracy, followed by reproductive rights. Israel is important, but it’s not the sole driving force. I am fully confident union voters will stand with Kamala Harris,” Soifer said.
