On September 9, The Intercept revealed that United Airlines has been shipping weapons to Israel on commercial passenger flights. This practice exploits civilian infrastructure and workers, including AFA-CWA members, to arm Israel in its genocide in Gaza and campaign of military violence across the region. It also poses a danger to the thousands of flight attendants and passenger service workers that CWA represents.
According to research from the Movement Research Unit, Palestinian Youth Movement, People’s Embargo for Palestine, and the Democratic Socialists of America, United Airlines was involved in the transport of nearly 3000 shipments of military cargo to Israel from July 2025 through February 2026. The airline paused its service to Israel at the onset of the US-Israeli war on Iran, but resumed flights—and shipments of military cargo—this week. The majority of the military hardware transported by United is intended for Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems and departs from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
As workers, we demand that our employers stop facilitating the genocide of the Palestinian people. The flight attendants, passenger service professionals, aviation workers, pilots, airport staff, and other everyday people who travel through our airports and on our planes deserve better than to unknowingly participate in a war effort that has taken tens of thousands of lives, destroyed cities, and displaced millions.
CWA for Palestine condemns United Airlines not only for risking airport and aviation workers’ physical safety, but for making them complicit in the US and Israel’s war crimes. Workers must stand up to end their exploitation—especially when their labor is used in the supply chain of death, killing fellow workers abroad.