Over 100 Labor For Palestine members and supporters held a meet up at the 2026 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago. They talked about the fight for Palestine, the fight at Chicago UAW 551 to support Palestine, the action by the Canadian Labour Congress to break from the Israeli Histadrut corporate trade union and also the effort to have a table at Labor Notes meeting. Following the Labor Notes conference at the UAW convention, the UAWD which is allied with Labor For Palestine successfully put forward an amendment in a resolution for the UAW to divest from all Israeli bonds. They also talked about the work in their unions. Additional Media: Labor For Palestine At 2026 Conference Spoke Out • Labor For Palestine At 2026 Labor Notes Co… UAWD Fight To Divest Israeli Bonds https://dailystruggle.org/uaw-divests… Labor For Palestine https://laborforpalestine.net Labor Video Project www.labormedia.net
Transcript:
0:01
1 secondPalestine free siblings, unions at home, please come talk to one of us. We have knives here.
0:14
14 secondsWe have so many. Please take them. Thank you.
0:19
19 secondsThe QR codes, if you haven’t RSVPd already, um the one on the flyer for RSVPing or the one on the little business card. Maybe not every table has one. Thank you so much. Enjoy. Discuss.
0:31
31 secondsFree Palestine. National network is a group of 55 and growing member groups that are all dedicated to basian liberation from the river.
0:42
42 seconds[cheering]
0:45
45 secondsWe meet monthly and that means we’re going to do our members today. We’re really happy. [cheering]
0:54
54 seconds[applause]
0:56
56 seconds[laughter]
0:56
56 secondsThe Palestine National Hour is a group of um 55 and growing member groups that are all dedicated to the Palestinian liberation from the river to the sea.
1:08
1 minute, 8 secondsPalestine. I’m Marcy Padza. I’m with UAW local 551.
1:14
1 minute, 14 secondsI’m an electrician at the Ford Chicago assembly plant and also a member of Thank you. UAW Labor for Palestine. I
1:22
1 minute, 22 secondsjoined in the fall of 2023, right during our standup strike, right in the middle of it. Um,
1:30
1 minute, 30 secondsand you know, everything going on, we’re on strike, we’re we’re we got a good feeling of solidarity, and with everything happening around the world, I
1:39
1 minute, 39 secondsI’m seeing uh other locals pass resolutions for a ceasefire and stand in solidarity with Palestine and the
1:47
1 minute, 47 secondsPalestinian Trade Union. I said, we could do that at 551. you know, why not?
1:52
1 minute, 52 secondsIt it doesn’t just have to be grad students or, you know, legal aid attorneys, manufacturing workers. We care about people all around the world.
2:02
2 minutes, 2 secondsAnd so I brought this resolution. Thank you. I I basically copied and pasted a resolution from one of my comrades that
2:10
2 minutes, 10 secondsjust basically said, “Let’s stand in solidarity, not just call for a ceasefire, show that we do stand in solidarity with Palestine.” And in order
2:19
2 minutes, 19 secondsto get this passed, you know, you got to have a second, right? You got to make sure you got somebody to back you up.
2:23
2 minutes, 23 secondsI’m going to make this proposal. You got my second. He’s like, “Yeah, sure.” And I went to talk to other committees. You’re going to support? Yeah, whatever.
2:31
2 minutes, 31 secondsThere was about a 100 members there at this meeting, which is about average and kind of sad considering we got about 5,000 in our local. But it passed
2:40
2 minutes, 40 secondsunanimously with only well, not unanimously, it passed overwhelmingly with only two uh abstensions, two
2:47
2 minutes, 47 secondsZionists. Um and and that was just the beginning. But then after that came a lot of backlash, which I’m sure a lot of
2:55
2 minutes, 55 secondspeople have experienced just from being vocal about Palestine.
3:00
3 minutesYou know, we have a huge Palestinian population in in Chicago
3:05
3 minutes, 5 seconds[clears throat]
3:06
3 minutes, 6 secondsand when [cheering]
3:08
3 minutes, 8 seconds[applause]
3:09
3 minutes, 9 secondsterms like why should we care about this? This is as workers. This is our tax dollars, right? This is our tax dollars funding a genocide. We’re we’re
3:17
3 minutes, 17 secondswe’re you know contributing to to murdering people and babies and all this money even now which is being used for
3:26
3 minutes, 26 secondsICE and DHS thugs that are terrorizing our community could be going towards better things for us and other things in
3:35
3 minutes, 35 secondsthe world. We could be fighting climate change. We could be fixing our roads. We could be building new green schools. And this this [ __ ] money, this this
3:43
3 minutes, 43 secondsbillions of dollars that they’re using in in technology for warfare, you think they’re not going to use that [ __ ] on us
3:50
3 minutes, 50 secondswhen we try to go on strike? They’re using all this AI Google [ __ ] They’re practicing
3:58
3 minutes, 58 secondsoverseas. They’re using it now for other wars. They’re obliterating people from outer space. This is going to affect us
4:05
4 minutes, 5 secondsas workers here. When we try to go against the boss, we try to go against companies, when we try to go on strike, we try to organize, they’re organizing
4:13
4 minutes, 13 secondstoo against us. So, we have to mobilize and stick together and show our solidarity with everyone around the
4:20
4 minutes, 20 secondsworld because we we we’re the only ones I I saw this one say it over and over again. We keep us safe, right? In my own neighborhood, which is right near the
4:28
4 minutes, 28 secondsFord plant, we’re being terrorized by ICE. People are being kidnapped. my my neighborhood was was um was gassed by these thugs and and you know people are
4:38
4 minutes, 38 secondspissed off. They’re coming out. They’re like, “No, you can’t take my kids.” They’re literally taking teenagers off the street and not telling anybody where
4:45
4 minutes, 45 secondsthey’re at. And so th this is all related. All this money is going to this we need to stand up and keep fighting.
4:52
4 minutes, 52 secondsThank you.
4:57
4 minutes, 57 secondsMy name is Johanna Rael. I’m from Pittsburgh. Um, USW9562.
5:03
5 minutes, 3 secondsWe’re an amalgamated local. I’m a tech worker. I work for a third party company for Google. E. Um, but again, so happy
5:11
5 minutes, 11 secondsthat you’re here today. Thank you for being here. I’m going to hand it over to Steve for just a couple of minutes who’s going to talk about some awesome [ __ ] they did in Canada.
5:20
5 minutes, 20 secondsThings are beginning to change in this country, and this world. People are waking up all over this country, and the world. And one of the good news events
5:28
5 minutes, 28 secondsthat happened is a few weeks ago there was a meeting in the Canadian Labor Congress representing all of the unions
5:35
5 minutes, 35 secondsof Canada and there’s a labor for Palestine group and they organized in the entire trading union movement of
5:43
5 minutes, 43 secondsCanada and they went provinces they ran won national support of national unions and they had a resolution for a labor
5:50
5 minutes, 50 secondsboycott of uh of Israel and the union bureaucracy bureaucracy was able to prevent that from going on the floor.
5:59
5 minutes, 59 secondsBut they put on another amendment uh they put a an amendment to a resolution that they had that called for breaking with the history group and actually that
6:07
6 minutes, 7 secondspassed against the union bureaucracy. So that is a real victory that the Canadian unions have said no more with the
6:15
6 minutes, 15 secondshistory group and we have to in the United States educate people first of all what is the history group first of
6:22
6 minutes, 22 secondsall why is it supporting the IDF and why our unions are supporting it to to educate them that we have to break relations the other thing is the IL
6:31
6 minutes, 31 secondslocal ten in San Francisco which led the way to stop the ZIM ships on the west coast two months ago they passed a resolution for a general strike against
6:39
6 minutes, 39 secondsthe war against the attacks on workers and they are talking among themselves and they may vote for it. They have a national general strike on November 4th,
6:48
6 minutes, 48 secondselection day because that’s a day that people really have to stand up against a possible dictatorship and fascism. This
6:56
6 minutes, 56 secondsis a serious thing. The attack on black representation in the south is an attack on all of us. They’re telling black workers, you don’t have the right to have representation.
7:06
7 minutes, 6 secondsWe have to tie our movement, the movement for Palestine, with the black workers, with the Latino workers, with all workers in this country. And that’s
7:14
7 minutes, 14 secondsgoing to be the basis to build a mass working-class movement, which is what we need to defend the people of Palestine.
7:20
7 minutes, 20 secondsWe need a mass working-class movement in this country. Join Labor for Palestine.
7:24
7 minutes, 24 secondsAs has been said, get involved in your union. We want to link up every national union. We want to know when every national convention is of every union
7:32
7 minutes, 32 secondsand get workers in these unions to unite together ahead of time and organize in their unions, educate their members and we can build a movement that moves the
7:40
7 minutes, 40 secondsworld. So, thank you brothers and sisters. Solidarity.
7:48
7 minutes, 48 secondsI’m Elizabeth Milos. I’m uh uh who’s a member of uh University Professional and Technical Employees uh CWA 9119. I’m now
7:58
7 minutes, 58 secondsCWA retirey council member and also a member of UPI members of Palestine and of course member of Labor for Palestine
8:05
8 minutes, 5 secondsNational Network and we as Labor for Palestine National Network came and put up uh tables here outside of labor notes because we tried to get a table and
8:14
8 minutes, 14 secondsapparently we’ve been trying to get a table at Labor Notes for the past 20 years and um every time there seems to
8:20
8 minutes, 20 secondsbe a problem with that. Um, and we were recently just approached by somebody from Labor Notes telling us that the
8:28
8 minutes, 28 secondshotel had asked uh that to get rid of the tables basically to not have tables
8:34
8 minutes, 34 secondsoutside. And um I we we told the person that
8:41
8 minutes, 41 secondsthey’re labor notes so let the hotel people come and talk to us then, you know, and no hotel person has approached us yet. And then when I did mention to
8:49
8 minutes, 49 secondsher that we were planning on leaving and only coming here in the mornings to begin with and being here during the lunch time uh and then tomorrow we’re
8:57
8 minutes, 57 secondsgoing to be here in the morning but then we’re going to be going to our own um event meetup that we’re having uh
9:03
9 minutes, 3 secondstomorrow between 12:45 and 2 at um which is going to be Labor Palestine National Network meetup with all the different
9:11
9 minutes, 11 secondsorganizations. We’ve been inviting a lot of people and it’s been really good response from people. But I told her that if Laboros had given us a table
9:18
9 minutes, 18 secondsinside to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this predicament. And they again used the excuse of, you know, we had 75 people. I said, “Yeah, well, we’ve been
9:25
9 minutes, 25 secondstrying for 20 years.” And in fact, you know, uh, labor notes should look at this very seriously because
9:34
9 minutes, 34 secondsuh, especially what which would what has come to light uh, from Jeff Shery’s book called No Mutuals There, Labor Zionism,
9:41
9 minutes, 41 secondsand that, uh, labor notes should be looking at this issue very seriously and not and and and they should have given us a table to begin with.
9:48
9 minutes, 48 secondsI’m Jack. Uh, my name is Jack Wyant. I am a member of United Steel Workers Local 9562 from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I’m here with some of my
9:56
9 minutes, 56 secondscomrades here tableabling with the Labor for Palestine National Network because our international union. They’ve made a statement a couple years ago, you know,
10:04
10 minutes, 4 secondsabout, you know, its stance on uh, you know, well, as they would characterize it, the Israeli the Israel Hamas war, but the genocide, trying to essentially
10:12
10 minutes, 12 secondsboth sides it, you know, make an equivalence between, you know, how Palestinian Palestinians are resisting it and the, you know, Israeli government
10:19
10 minutes, 19 secondsthemselves. And we’re trying to push uh to get like not just the language of that resolution improved, you know, to end our complicity with the war machine
10:27
10 minutes, 27 secondsas you know, members of a union. Uh that plays um an integral part in, you know, weapons manufacturing, uh manufacturing
10:35
10 minutes, 35 secondsof various sorts that goes to uh contribute to what Israel is doing. Um and we’re we’re trying to get uh yeah, devestment. We want, you know, to cut
10:44
10 minutes, 44 secondsties with the history, which is, you know, the apartheid supporting uh labor federation in Israel that uh commonly um
10:52
10 minutes, 52 secondsuh scabs uh on strikes that Palestinian unions participate in. I’m happy to be here supporting a cause like this cuz labor is central to this. We got to stand up.
