Regarding the Companies Benefitting from Operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Executive Summary by the BCUWU Palestine Solidarity Working Group
Background
- The present report is submitted to the membership of the British Columbia Union Workers’ Union (BCUWU) pursuant to the Trade Union Solidarity with Palestine1 resolution, passed on December 14, 2023 at the BCUWU’s bi-annual general membership meeting.
- As part of these resolutions, the BCUWU resolved that “all BCUWU affiliates work with union trustees to ascertain and report on whether their respective pension plans include investments in companies benefitting from operations in the illegally Occupied Territories by the end of 2024.”
- A working group of the Social Justice and Solidarity Committee was struck to create the report and found that seven pension funds covering 319 BCUWU members are investing funds in a minimum of 20 companies directly implicated in the genocide in Gaza or the apartheid in the occupied territories of the West Bank
- This resolution was premised on the rationale that, as of December 2023:
- Canada exported over $21 million CAD in military goods to Israel in 2022, including over $3 million in bombs, torpedoes, missiles, and other explosives;
- More than 10,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed since October 9, 2023 as the result of the Israeli military’s exercise of overwhelming and unjustified force;
- the Israeli government had issued more than 10,000 weapons with no oversight to Israelis living in settlements deemed illegal under international law;
- On October 16, 2023 more than 30 Palestinian trade unions, including the largest labour federation, issued an “Immediate Call to Action” to workers and trade unions around the world to stop the flow of arms to Israel by immediately
- Refusing to build weapons destined for Israel.
- Refusing to transport weapons to Israel.
- Passing motions in their trade union to this effect.
- Taking action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.