Immediate Actions

• Organize a sick out (call in sick en-masse) or a slow down (everyone comes to work but does very little work). This will have to happen most likely through unofficial union channels. 

• Talk to your Shop Steward or Union Delegate about planning to call off work to attend an upcoming Shut Down (possibly in conjunction with another tactic, such as a sick out, if necessary). 

• Get a group of workers together to shut down a factory, a dock, or another part of the supply chain that manufactures or transports military weapons. 

• Organize a mass call-in to the CFO of your employer/university, urging them to divest from companies profiting from genocide. Don’t just rely on social media to spread the word: use your union’s membership list to phonebank members to get involved and to put up flyers with the CFO’s phone number and a call script. 

• Organize groups of workers to wear buttons calling for a ceasefire or a free Palestine. 

• Organize groups of workers to take pictures holding up solidarity messages relevant to their industries (i.e., nurses in X hospital stand with Gazan nurses, telecom workers against shutting off the internet to Gazans, etc.).

• Organize contingents at the workplace to join the November 17th protest and future protests. 

• Hold a moment of silence or name of martyr reading before or after the work day.

• Hold a lunch hour call-in campaign to politicians (same as above phone zap but for different target).

• Create petitions to both the company and the unions, coordinated perhaps across different work sites. It can be a broad demand (i.e. call for ceasefire).

• Informational picketing: Pass out fliers about Palestine to coworkers before or after work.

• Hang fliers on the union board, inside the bathroom or breakroom, or all three.

• Connect with Palestinian labor on social media. Retweet and circulate Palestinian union demands (especially if can be done in the name of a local shop).

• Chalk ‘Ceasefire Now’ on the sidewalk near/in front of your workplace. Be sure to avoid cameras if you are not unionized and can face disciplinary action. Put stickers on posts and on entrance ways.

• If you work in the food industry: Find creative ways to change your food display to look like the Palestinian flag! 

• Don’t lend support to Israel/Zionism/War in your employer's name. (i.e., boycott any company volunteer events if they exist, and encourage others to do the same)

• Organize! Organize! Organize! Find the other people in your workplace interested. Figure out what you can do in your context. Use this sheet for organizing conversation.

Fighting Repression

• Create and distribute a grievance template to coworkers. 

• If you have problems in your workplace, encourage all those with grievances to practice strong documentation and record-keeping toward writing strong grievances. This means documentation of every instance of repression. 

• Share knowledge with trusted colleagues to identify patterns of censorship/repression. 

• If a coworker is harassed for speaking out on Palestine, fired, or otherwise targeted, organize your workplace to support them via statements, fundraising, mass emails to management, etc. 

Education

• Ensure your coworkers know the ins and outs of BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions). 

• Hold political education events for workers. Reach out to groups like the Palestinian Youth Movement for support! 

• Plan a teach-in on Palestine, capital and the working class and how your workplace is involved in the U.S. war machine. 

• Organize a book reading on Palestine, and invite the author if possible. 

Organizing & Building Solidarity

• Push locals, nationals, labor councils, workers centers and clubs to take up BDS, or make statements in solidarity w Gaza and against israeli aggression

• Introduce a ceasefire or BDS resolution. You can look at the Workers in Palestine’s resolution template as an example, or find more information in the U.S. Labor Solidarity Against Apartheid toolkit. 

• Organize a Palestine workers meeting. 

• Build coalition with workers across your sector that can cause a shut down across your supply chain. 

• Identify other workers you are proximal to in your workplace who are not unionized and would otherwise speak out if they had job protections. Create an anonymous way for them to speak out on behalf of Palestine.

• Schedule organizing training in order to hone the skills of everyone in your union local. 

• If there are students near you, how are you building solidarity with them? Student-worker solidarity has always been at the heart of successful social movements (1968 anti-war protests, New School Cafeteria takeover etc.)

Union Elections, Union Nationals

• Talk to your shop about conveying Pro-Palestinian sentiment to your union’s national or statewide/citywide leadership (if applicable). Research your union’s history on other issues and identify its politics. 

• If applicable: understand and identify your union’s national membership; AFT (American Federation of Teachers) for example is a teachers’ union with 33,000 correctional officer members. 

• If your national union has a repressive, anti-Palestinian/Zionist leadership, reach out to workers and organizers you trust and begin conversations about electing new leadership on all levels. 

• If your shop steward is a Zionist, immediately begin discussions on moving them or replacing them in upcoming elections.