‘Hot cargo’: Union delegates vote to refuse handling of Israeli arms shipments [video]

The NB Federation of Labour will call on unions to refuse handling any weapons shipments bound for Israel, following the adoption of an arms embargo resolution at the group’s recent convention in Saint John.

The resolution calls on the central labour body to declare any arms shipments bound for Israel to be “hot cargo,” a term referencing goods that unionized workers refuse to handle based on principles of solidarity.

“As workers, I think we really have the ability to hold the bosses and our governments to account in a way that other people can’t,” said Kevin Levangie, a letter carrier and regional union rep who is involved with the group Labour 4 Palestine.

He put forward the resolution on behalf of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.

He noted that longshore workers shut down the Port of Saint John in 1979 to prevent the shipment of heavy water for a reactor in Argentina, which was ruled by a military dictatorship at the time.

In 2003, they refused to handle military cargo bound for Iraq during the U.S. invasion. And in 2018, longshore workers refused to cross a picket line against a shipment of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia for its war in Yemen, although a report from the action indicates that the shipment ultimately went ahead.

Read more: “No Hot Cargo” — An ode to Saint John port worker solidarity

The resolution also calls for the NB Federation of Labour to push for a federal arms embargo on arms exports to Israel “whether they are direct shipments or through a third party.”

Last year, then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said the feds would ban Canadian-made weapons from being used in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

But activists say a loophole allows exports to continue via the United States, by far the world’s biggest arms supplier to Israel.

For example, in March, a report from Project Ploughshares stated that a Quebec-based subsidiary of General Dynamics was contracted to produce $78.8 million worth of artillery propellants for the U.S., some of them bound for Israel.

Activists in New Brunswick have also called attention to a factory in Moncton that manufactures parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program.

Customers of the U.S. based military giant include the Israeli Air Force, which has used the jet fighters in its bombing of the Gaza Strip — notably to drop 2,000-pound bombs on a so-called “safe zone” in Khan Younis last year, killing 90 Palestinians, according to Amnesty International.

Levangie, the CUPW rep, said it’s “hard to speculate” whether unionized workers will refuse to transport F-35 parts from Moncton.

He said it ultimately comes down to organizers speaking to workers about “why they should risk potential discipline at work in order to protect people in another part of the world who are undergoing a genocide.”

The NB Federation of Labour previously endorsed the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel over the occupation of Palestinian territory and what international human rights groups have described as a system of apartheid.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the country’s foremost labour body, is under pressure from Labour 4 Palestine to declare all Israeli goods and services hot cargo and to campaign for an arms embargo.

Federation to fight automation

The arms embargo resolution was adopted as part of the 56th convention of the NB Federation of Labour, which took place last week in Saint John. Nineteen resolutions were adopted at the convention, according to Watson.

One of them, put forward by the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 273, called for the federation to lobby the government to fight job losses due to automation.

“We’re seeing this more and more now,” Watson said, pointing to examples such as self-checkout kiosks at grocery stores and robot waiters at restaurants.

The federation wants a public inquiry and the “possible elimination of a lot of it,” he said. “It’s taking away good paying jobs.”

He also raised concerns about automation reducing the tax base, straining government services.

Disarmament resolution defeated

One resolution, also put forward by CUPW, called for “the disarmament of the major economic powers.” That resolution also called for a “just transition” to retrain workers involved in military production.

The motion was defeated following objections from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, whose members include civilian military workers, according to people who attended the convention.

Watson said the vote followed a respectful debate and that union delegates “ultimately decided that we need to support one another in all of our sectors.”

Levangie said that CUPW has historically supported the peace and disarmament movement, which aims to move government spending “away from death and destruction, towards social justice at home and abroad.”

He added: “if there’s a cut in military expenditure, we want to see an equivalent increase in social expenditure. And the idea that any union member would be left behind is not something that we would ever sign up for.”

Resolutions on labour and socioeconomic affairs are adopted if they garner a majority of votes cast by delegates from affiliated unions.

Executive elected, longtime trade unionists honoured

Delegates at the convention elected Chris Watson to a two-year term as president. He previously served as interim leader following the death of then-president Danny Légère in December.

Other executive officers elected at the convention included:

– Secretary-treasurer: Nicholas Maltais (Public Service Alliance of Canada)

– 1st Vice-president: Catherine Little (NB Nurses Union)

– 2nd Vice-president: Matthew Barnable (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers)

– VP responsible for Women’s Issues: Christine Hawkes (Canadian Union of Public Employees)

– VP responsible for Young Workers: Ryley Hallihan (PSAC)

Two longtime trade unionists were also inducted into the federation’s Honour Roll.

The inductees included Légère, whose background in the labour movement included six years as federation president and 14 years as president of CUPE NB. The other inductee was Lawrence McKay, the former Atlantic Regional Coordinator with the Steelworkers union.

McKay, who is now retired, “firmly believed that all workers must go home at the end of their workday in the exact same condition that they came in,” the federation said in a press release. “Coming from the mining sector and seeing so many underground fatalities, he was a lifelong advocate for safe and healthy workplaces for all workers.”

The NB Federation of Labour is the largest central labour body in the province, representing some 40,000 members from unions in the private and public sector.

Updated with video at 5 p.m. on June 5, 2025. Updated with more details at 9:45 a.m. on June 6, 2025. 

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).