As bombs continue to fall and the death toll continues to mount from the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran, a growing number of labor unions are demanding an immediate end to the unconstitutional and “reckless aggression,” pointing out that the working class will bear the heaviest price for a war they never wanted or consented to.
In the U.S., nurses, electrical workers, service employees, and autoworkers are joining their international siblings in condemning the strikes, which have already killed more than 1,000 Iranians—including at least 150 at a young girls’ school—along with at least four U.S. service members. Reports of dead Americans range from those four to as many as 11, including civilians at different locations in the Middle East.
The unions are drawing a direct line between the multi-billion dollars spent on wars and the austerity being forced on working families at home.
“Our patients pay for these bombs”
In a blistering statement, National Nurses United (NNU) condemned the Trump regime for committing “yet another imperialist act of war without approval from Congress.
“Just like Trump’s unilateral military action in Venezuela, the U.S. attack on Iran is paid for by our patients: working-class people across the United States who are already struggling here at home to afford basic necessities such as health care, food, and housing,” the union said.
The nurses drew a sharp contrast between the Trump regime’s priorities abroad and its so-called domestic agenda. While Trump and the Republicans “prioritize spending on war abroad,” they are simultaneously “gutting Medicaid and Medicare, refusing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies… and proving that they run the United States to benefit only billionaires and corporations,” said the Nurses.
NNU pointed to the key historical context often omitted from the corporate media “coverage”—the war. They noted, said the nurses, that this war is “a continuation of decades of U.S. intervention in Iran, beginning with the overthrow of the democratically elected Mossadegh government in 1953.”
The union also highlighted the specific horrors inflicted on civilians.
“RNs have been especially appalled to see civilian infrastructure already decimated, including the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran over the weekend that killed more than 150 children and adults. Multiple Iranian hospitals have also been damaged, a violation of international humanitarian law.”
“Contempt for democracy and the Constitution”
The United Electrical Workers (UE) echoed the Nurses’ condemnation of the strikes’ illegality, noting that President Trump “ran for office pledging to keep the U.S. out of military entanglements overseas.”
“The U.S. Constitution is clear: only Congress has the authority to declare war,” the UE stated. “Iran poses no imminent threat to the U.S. that would justify military action without consulting Congress, and attacking Iran is not supported by the American public. Trump’s actions betray a contempt for democracy and the Constitution, as if he were a ‘supreme leader’ whose will trumps the will of the people.”
The UE also underscored who profits most from the conflict—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “the CEOs and stockholders of the oil companies who covet Iran’s oil,” and the military-industrial complex monopolies.
“The very existence of the Islamic Republic in Iran is a direct result of the U.S. and its allies overthrowing a democratically-elected government there in 1953 and installing Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,” the union noted. “It needs to be up to the Iranian people to make changes to their government, something that being bombed by the U.S. and Israel will only make more difficult.”
“War hurts working people”
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said unequivocally that “war hurts working people, poor people, women, and children.
“Without Constitutional authority, Congressional authorization, or the backing of the American people, Trump has created further chaos and instability in the world,” SEIU said. “Launching a regime-change war in Iran is one more example of this administration’s deadly recklessness and disregard for the law.”
SEIU pledged solidarity with workers in Iran, affirming that “we know the power of working people together and we will oppose this and any other move by this administration that harms workers, our families, or our communities.”
“More in common with Iranian people than with billionaires”
Brandon Mancilla, director of United Auto Workers Region 9A, said that U.S. workers share a common class enemy with the people of Iran—the billionaire class.
Mancilla stated that U.S. workers have “more in common with the Iranian people than with the billionaires,” driving the war for resources, geopolitical gains, and ultimately profit.
In California, UAW Locals 4811, 872, and 2478 issued a joint statement, saying the Trump Administration’s unprovoked attack on Iran is a disaster for working people everywhere.
“Working people in the U.S. do not want another illegal regime change war,” the unions said. “The U.S. military should not determine how Iran is governed. Our representatives in Congress must find the political will to restrain the White House before more lives are lost.”
From the offices in Nicosia, Cyprus—where British military bases are occupying parts of the island nation and are now being bombed, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) issued a forceful condemnation of the “new imperialist attack,” calling it “a blatant violation of every principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
“Their invocation of supposed sensitivity to democracy and human rights in Iran is blatantly hypocritical,” the WFTU said. “Such pretexts have been used in the past for similar raids, with disastrous and bloody results for the peoples and states of the region.”
The WFTU expressed “undivided solidarity with the people of Iran and the peoples of the Middle East who are suffering from imperialist intervention and Israeli aggression.”
For its part, the ITUC warned that such actions “violate international law, undermine diplomacy and are predictably plunging the region into a wider, devastating war.”
As of now, the AFL-CIO has not released a statement or a position on the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. A Reuters poll found that just 1 in 4 U.S. voters approve of the military action initiated by Trump and Netanyahu.
On March 28, the third installation of the No Kings protests will be taking place with large trade union support. One of the slogans, “No imperial wars of conquest,” will be raised with greater urgency now, as the U.S. continues to subjugate Venezuela, Cuba, and now Iran with its “might-makes-right” imperialist policy.
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