Trade Union Friends of Israel

Thanks for your patience -- the new TUFI website will go live later today, 26 March 2008.

For more than two years, Israelis living in Sderot and other towns near Gaza have been the target of choice for Hamas terrorists. Launching its arsenal of Qassam rockets from residential neighborhoods and even schoolyards, they have as much as dared Israel to fight back. Now it has.

Predictably, much of the world is expressing its dismay — and those of us who call ourselves progressives are fuming that much of it is coming from our counterparts on the left overseas. However, it’s not enough for us to be indignant. Absent the involvement of the American labor movement, any effort to build worldwide support on the left for the Jewish state will be extraordinary difficult.

Israeli Industrial News: Histadrut, Coffee Bean strike breakthrough labour deal

A very sophisticated and thriving cafe culture has been developing in Israel, but workers' rights in the restaurant sector have been largely unprotected. That is about to change.

The Histadrut Labour Federation and the Coffee Bean chain of coffee shops on Tuesday (11 March) signed a collective labour agreement, the first of its kind between the union and a restaurant. It ends a long work dispute between employees in Coffee Bean's 14 establishments and management.