UNISON Manchester Branch invites you to participate in the Workplace Day of Action for Palestine on 15th May 2025.
The branch office will be taking its own photograph opportunity, to be circulated on social media using the hashtag #workplaces4palestine at 12:30pm on 15th May outside Manchester’s Central Library. All are welcome.
We also encourage you to take action in your own workplaces, take photographs, bring Keffiyehs, t-shirts, badges and flags to show the support that the Palestinian trade union movement have asked for. Please circulate on social media photographs you take and be sure to add the @unisonmanchester on Instagram and @unisonmcr on Twitter ( ‘X’ ).
Palestinian rights are a Trade Union issue. Unison stands with Palestinian workers who have had their lives and livelihoods decimated since the attacks of October 7th 2023. After a brief respite, Israel has resumed its genocidal onslaught in Gaza. As well as increasing its attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel is again targeting workers in Gaza. Journalists, medical staff, and aid workers are all being killed at an unprecedented rate. Meanwhile, backed by Donald Trump, Israel is openly threatening the full ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza.
UNISON is calling for:
- An immediate ceasefire with the release of all hostages
- Recognition of the State of Palestine as part of the global push toward a two-state solution
- An end to the occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
- End all arms sales to Israel
- For Greater Manchester Pension Fund to continue to divest from arms companies, particularly those complicit in sales to the Israeli Defence Forces
We must call for an end to 77 years of Nakba – (Catastrophe in Arabic) the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land, started in 1948. We must continue to demand a permanent ceasefire, an end to all arms sales to Israel, and justice for the Palestinian people.
Tens of thousands of trade unionists in Britain have joined the huge national protests in London and elsewhere and have been leading an array of solidarity actions. In September 2024, TUC Congress unanimously passed a motion demanding an end to all licenses for arms traded with Israel, meeting international law, reaffirming the need to advance a strategy of boycott, divestment and sanctions, and recognising that all Palestinians are subjected to a system of oppression that is recognised internationally as apartheid. Congress also voted to adopt an emergency resolution to support calls for UK-wide workplace actions in support of an immediate ceasefire.
Palestinian workers, remaining steadfast in pursuing their struggle for freedom and justice, have called on workers around the world to stand in solidarity with them by campaigning to end the complicity of their governments, corporations and institutions in Israel’s system of oppression.
On Nakba Day – Thursday 15 May, take action in your workplace to demand an end to government and corporate complicity in Israel’s atrocities, call for a permanent ceasefire and justice for Palestine, and mobilise for the national demonstration in London on 17 May.
Discuss with your colleagues in your branch what kind of action best suits your workplace and its circumstances. Take action in your workplace:
- Organise a lunch & learn session to give colleagues a chance to learn about the region’s history.
- Circulate a petition calling for the divestment of pension fund holdings from companies complicit in Israel’s attacks, such as arms companies supplying Israel with the weapons it uses in its attacks.
- Organise a letter-writing session for your members to write to their local councillors to call on them to divest LGPS funds administered by the council from companies enabling Israel’s war crimes.
- Support the Don’t Buy Apartheid campaign by asking your workplace to commit not to stock Israeli fresh produce and Coca-Cola products. Israeli agricultural exporters and Coca-Cola operate in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land, using looted Palestinian resources
- Distribute leaflets for the national demonstration for Palestine on Saturday, 17th May, in Central London.
#workplaces4palestine FREE PALESTINE!
