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Britain’s biggest union Unison “complicit in Israel’s genocide”, whistleblowers tell the Canary

Britain’s biggest trade union Unison is using Israeli and Israel-linked providers for key internal service provision, insiders have told the Canary.

This is despite support for Palestinian rights and opposition to genocide being official union policy, as decided by members.

One of Europe’s biggest trade unions, Unison has 1.3 million members across the public and private sectors. The union supports progressive causes at home and abroad. It even produced a handbook on Palestine rights in 2021.

Its current leadership have repeatedly and publicly condemned Israel’s crimes, endorsed BDS, and backed Palestinian statehood.

Unison’s website says the organisation fights to defend trade union and human rights “wherever they are under attack”.

Is Unison complicit in Israel’s genocide?

Yet, courageous insiders at Unison have shown the Canary evidence of what one called “complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide”.

Some of the evidence we were directed to is open source. But the Canary has also seen documents which appear to confirm Unison is still using Israeli and Israeli-linked firms for services like insurance, human resources, and travel procurement from genocide-linked firms.

Two of the companies are global insurance giants with links to Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems. The others are Israeli-owned companies with corporate headquarters inside Israel.

A year ago, one of these firms publicly stated its “unequivocal” support the apartheid regime.

The whistleblowers believe that the union membership have a right to know about any potential genocide links. They hope Unison and other unions will ensure they align with the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanction (BDS) campaign.

Courageous insiders

One insider, who asked not to be named, said that because Unison is currently electing a new General Secretary this issue could become critical:

These revelations should shame Unison. Would-be leaders must commit to immediately cut all ties with Israel and the arms trade if they are to ask for members’ trust and confidence.

They added:

Questions need to be answered as to who is responsible for these contracts. I’m sure this will affect the chances of a second term for the current General Secretary, under who’s watch this has been allowed to continue.

Apartheid firms

The insider told the Canary:

I want to see Unison – the largest trade union in the UK – held to account for it’s funding of the arms trade & breaking of its own position on Palestine, including its’ Boycott Divestment & Sanction statement.

Without the actions of these brave insiders, the membership would be none the wiser.

The whistleblower said:

We should be able to hold trade unions to the highest standards of integrity and democracy. Yet here we have Unison- the largest union in the nation, funding the genocide they have publicly condemned, in direct betrayal of the membership they claim to hold sovereign.

Just this week, current General Secretary Christina McAnea has spoken to the Trade Union Council [TUC] conference of the need for the government to intervene urgently in Gaza… the hypocrisy of this when her union continues in financial relationships with companies who are funding the genocide is sickening.

The Allianz-Elbit pipeline

The union offers it’s members cheap insurance through a UK firm called LV.com. In 2020, insurance giant Allianz completed the purchase of LV.com. Allianz in turn insures Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

As the Canary has reported, Elbit provides up to “85% of Israel’s killer drone fleet and land-based equipment, as well as missiles, munitions and digital warfare”.

Elbit’s quadcopter drones are “routinely used to massacre Palestinians in Gaza”

Zurich

The Canary has also seen internal documents linking Unison with insurance firm Zurich. These suggest the union is using Zurich for services including “employer’s liability insurance”.

Unison Israel

By insuring arms and military equipment firms who are taking part in Israel’s military action, Zurich are also implicated in Israeli crimes. Both Zurich and Allianz were named in an major 2025 report titled ‘Ensuring Destruction’.

The study examines how these powerful firms are cashing in on Israel’s attack on Gaza. You can read our analysis of that report here.

monday.com

The whistleblower told the Canary that Unison also still uses monday.com, an Israeli-owned ‘cloud based platform’, for some of its HR provision. monday.com has its head office in Tel Aviv.

Unison Israel

One Irish organisation has already stopped using monday.com under pressure from their staff over genocide links. In January 2025, the Resident’s Tenancy Board (RTB), an Irish rental watchdog, decided not to renew a contract with Monday.com after “internal anger” from staff.

RTB maintains it stopped using monday.com was for business reasons. However in 2025 Irish publication The Journal claimed:

Staff were told that the contract with Monday will cease in May and would not be renewed.

The issue has an ongoing one for management. The Journal learned that the RTB had to quell internal anger after the RTB processed a payment for the global software firm for further use of the software.

A year ago – long after international law courts levelled charges of genocide against the apartheid state’s leadership – monday.com posted on Linkedin:

We unequivocally stand with Israel and its people as the country endures one of the most difficult moments in its history.

Additionally, our sources say Unison uses the Israeli-owned travel management firm Atriis for some of its travel procurement. Atriis is also headquartered in Israel

The Canary has been given screenshots and a a link to an internal webpage used to book travel through Atriis, which describes its service as “a content-centric corporate online booking platform“.

Unison Israel

Unison members have a right to know its ties to Israel

Two other Unison insiders confirmed that to their knowledge these services were still in use.

One of these sources also said that the union membership did not know the full extent of these Israeli links and wouldn’t be happy if they did:

I think many would be shocked given the footage they see coming out of Gaza everyday.

Large sections of the rank-and-file Unison membership are vocally committed to Palestinian rights and self-determination. As a result, various commitments have been incorporated into union policy over the years.

The Canary asked our first source if it was possible this could have been accidentally overlooked:

In my experience, Unison is incredibly inefficient, and layers of bureaucracy and chronic under-staffing inhibit any meaningful reform.

I would like to believe that these contracts are an oversight, but the repeated motions from members against such procurement demand a response and there can be no excuse for action not being taken.

Trades Union Congress in September 2024

As recently as 8 September, Unison leaders were speaking at Palestine solidarity events at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) conference in Brighton:

McAnea spoke about Palestine alongside other trade union leaders:

Unison’s X account also praised a “powerful” speech by Palestinian trade unionist leader Shaher Saed:

And Unison’s International Lead Lis Snape called for Palestinian human and trade union rights to be respected:

Committed to Palestinian rights

In December 2021, Unison even published a guide for members titled ‘Talking about Palestinians Rights‘.

The guide states [authors bold]:

UNISON supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), as a practical way to force the Israeli government to end its repression of the Palestinian people and contribute towards the building of peace. This means taking a targeted approach to BDS in order to maximise our impact.

We support the TUC policy of campaigning for a boycott of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and divestment from companies who profit from the illegal Israeli occupation.

The guide shows that Unison has a clear understanding of the fascistic character of Israeli apartheid and occupation [authors bold]:

The issue of Palestine is often portrayed as a highly complex dispute over a contested area of land. In reality, the central issue is the military occupation, which has continued to violate the rights of the Palestinian people and international law since the land was taken by the Israeli government during the 1967 war.

Full statehood – yet Unison is complicit with Israel

On 30 July 2025, the Unison leadership backed the UK government’s position on Palestinian statehood.

General Secretary Christina McAnea said:

Recognition of the state of Palestine is a critical step towards bringing peace to the region, ending the illegal occupation and respecting basic human rights.

McAnea made it clear that the situation in Gaza was extremely bad, acknowledging the risk of famine (now a frightening reality) and the wholesale, deliberate destruction of healthcare infrastructure:

The situation in Gaza has never been more critical, with UN warnings of famine and people dying of hunger. Healthcare and other public services in Gaza have been devastated. Almost all the territory is under displacement orders or within a militarised zone.

Membership vs leadership in Unison over Israel?

A unison document titled ‘2025 National Delegate Conference Decisions‘ affirms the union membership’s desire for a just settlement for both Palestinians and Israelis [authors bold]:

Conference recognises that the demand for a contiguous, viable Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure state of Israel is central to UNISON’s position on Palestine. The demand is fundamental to securing human and workers’ rights for the Palestinian people, including the right to decent work and quality public services.

The conference document emphasises Unison’s commitment to BDS:

Conference notes existing UNISON policy in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement and the excellent work done across UNISON branches and regions. On many occasions we have reaffirmed our commitment to the BDS movement.

Unison and Israel

The ‘Conference Decisions’ document recognises the need for accountability through, for example, strengthening Unison’s “ethical procurement procedures”.

The document explicitly recognises “illegal occupation, apartheid and genocide” as the reality on the ground [author’s bold]:

Conference agrees that to ensure that we are not funding companies linked to arms manufacture, dual use goods or any companies profiting from illegal occupation, apartheid or genocide, we must strengthen and resource our ethical procurement procedures across the union.

The insiders said they hoped that by bringing the union’s “complicity” to public attention, Unison and other UK trade unions will audit their organisations for any links to Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide.

Unison were approached for comment, acknowledged the Canary’s request, but failed to respond.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

This post was originally published on Canary.