THE UNITE TRADE union has told its members it will support any efforts to boycott the handling of Israeli goods and services in their places of work. 

The union sent an update to its position on Israel and Palestine to its members in Ireland and the UK today, outlining how it will support worker-led boycott and divestment campaigns.

The show of support from the union could see protests similar to Ireland’s most famous boycott movement, when workers at Dunnes Stores refused to handle goods from Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s. 

Unite the Union has around two million members across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain. It represents workers in a wide range of industries. 

In its correspondence to members, the union’s Executive Council said it would defend “all Unite members victimised at work for expressing support for the Palestinian people”. 

It condemned Israel’s “genocidal actions” in Gaza and the West Bank. It said it would assist campaigns for divestment from Israeli companies in members’ workplaces and more generally.

Unite said it will engage with members and reps in relevant sectors before taking any action. 

“We will not take any action that will put members’ jobs at risk without their consent,” it said.

The union leadership has encouraged its branches and regions to affiliate themselves with their local Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) branch, to support demonstrations and to promote days of action. 

Unite has also committed to working with PSC to “engage and inform members and reps in specific sectors and industries, particularly those working in companies that are identified as complicit with war crimes and the crime of genocide”. 

The union has also urged its members to engage in boycotts against government pension funds and local government investments in companies associated with Israel’s war on Gaza and occupation of Palestine more broadly. 

This should be done, the statement said, “to fulfil their moral and legal obligations according to international law”. 

The updated position included some pledges specific to the political situation in the UK, where Unite is at odds with the Labour government over its support for Israel throughout its war on Gaza, but also over its economic and labour policies at home. 

Unite voted to re-examine its relationship with the Labour Party last Friday and suspended Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner as a union member.

The union said it would push for an end to the UK’s “complicity in the genocide” and for Labour to fulfil its election promise of recognising the State of Palestine. 

Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in Palestine has killed more than 58,000 people since the Hamas-led attack on the country in October 2023. 

It has been accused of genocide in a case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. 

The UK supports Israel’s war materially – with arms sales – and diplomatically on the world stage.