Workplace day of action
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called a Workplace Day of Action on the 15th of May to mark Nakba Day. You can read the call in full here: Nakba Day Workplace Day of Action for Palestine - Palestine Solidarity Campaign
This call is supported by the TUC:
“Tens of thousands of trade unionists in Britain have joined the huge national protests in London and elsewhere and have been leading an array of solidarity actions. In September 2024, TUC Congress unanimously passed a motion demanding an end to all licenses for arms traded with Israel, meeting international law, reaffirming the need to advance a strategy of boycott, divestment and sanctions, and recognising that all Palestinians are subjected to a system of oppression that is recognised internationally as apartheid. Congress also voted to adopt an emergency resolution to support calls for UK-wide workplace actions in support of an immediate ceasefire.”
At the 2025 NEU National Conference, delegates representing approximately 500,000 education workers voted in an overwhelming majority to support the Disarm Education campaign. This instructs the union and its membership to support the Disarm Education campaign to establish commitments in schools/colleges to prevent and cut ties with arms companies.
What can you do?
Hosting a workplace meeting on Disarm Education at your workplace this Nakba Day is a great way to start a conversation in your workplace on the importance of cutting ties with arms companies, particularly in the context of UK arms companies’ complicity in the genocide in Gaza.
Education workers across the UK will have different levels of consciousness around the ties between arms companies and schools/colleges. For many education workers, this may be the first time they are hearing about these ties and having a meeting on this will be an important consciousness raising tool. Other workplaces, where ties are more pertinent, may have had this topic raised before and instead you can use the workplace day of action to build power for the campaign. There are a range of different things you can do at your workplace depending on the context. Some of these may include:
For schools/colleges first hearing about the campaign:
Having a discussion circle on Disarm Education. You can find key facts about the campaign and discussion questions below. This will allow you to start building strength in the workplace to pass an affiliation motion in the future/get support to establish commitments in your school/college to end ties with arms companies.
Doing a photo-op with Disarm Education leaflets and/or Palestine Flags. If you want leaflets for a photo op, please contact disarmeducation@proton.me with your name and school/college address before Wednesday 7 May. This is an excellent way of raising visibility for the campaign.
For schools/colleges where there is already support:
Passing an affiliation motion so your workplace branch is affiliated to Disarm Education. You can find a model motion here. This is the first step to build towards writing a letter/having a meeting with your headteacher and/or board of governors to establish commitments in your school as this means you will have the strength of your workplace branch behind you.
Fact Sheets
The following links will take you to short fact sheets on Disarm Education:
UK Arms companies in Schools/Colleges
Next Steps
Put a message in your NEU workplace group to organise the workplace day of action - this could be on a WhatsApp Group or Email. You can let your NEU group know that it is Nakba day and that you will be doing a discussion/action in support of the Workplace Day of Action. You may want to include other agenda items (e.g. the upcoming strike ballot!) to drive attendance. At Waltham Forest, food is reimbursed by the District which encourages high turn-out - speak to your District to see if this is possible.
Contact Disarm Education at disarmeducation@proton.me to let us know if you’re doing a workplace meeting so we can share with the group.
Send any pictures which your NEU group is happy with us sharing so we can post on our socials and grow the campaign.
Think about your next steps. If you had a presentation, discussion or photo-op, how do you pass an affiliation motion? If you’ve passed the affiliation motion, how do you now contact your headteacher or governors to get this implemented as school/college policy?
Join the campaign if you haven’t already, and encourage all your members to sign up. You can join the campaign at disarmeducation.org/get-involved