Unite workers vote to strike at Leonardo – over pay, not complicity in genocide of course

Workers at the Anglo-Italian arms firm Leonardo have voted to strike over pay. The firm has offered a rise of 3.2%. Unite regional officer Carrie Binnie told the BBC: “This strike is entirely the making of Leonardo. It can fix it with the stroke of a pen.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

Our members are highly skilled and work on critical defence and aerospace systems yet are being short-changed by a company making billions.

Leonardo needs to do the right thing, return to the negotiating table and make an improved offer our members can accept.

Otherwise, they will see their workers on the picket line and their factories shutdown.

Leonardo has nine sites across the UK.

Leonardo: a bloody history

Leonardo has been implicated in war crimes in Africa, corruption scandals in Indonesia and Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

As the Canary reported in January, Leonardo has extensive ties to the Israeli state and makes parts for Apache helicopters and targeting systems for F-35 fighter jets, which have been used by Israel to drop 2000lb bombs on Gaza, destroying homes and civilian infrastructure, and killing tens of thousands of civilians. Leonardo’s site in Edinburgh has been targeted and shut down by activists multiple times since Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza intensified in October 2023.

And the firm is also close to Starmer’s Labour Party, having sponsored an armed forces events at the party’s conference.

War workers with Unite at Leonardo

There’s a contradiction between trade unionism and the arms trade. One the one hand, unions are meant to be committed to progressive causes at home and abroad. On the other, some unions organise the arms firm workers.

For example, Unite the Union organises many workers in the war industry. Following a January war spending hike, the union wrote:

In his statement to parliament yesterday prime minister Keir Starmer said: ‘We will translate defence spending into British growth, British jobs, British skills and British innovation’. Unite is committed to ensuring that pledge is fully delivered.

According to Red Pepper, Unite only passed a motion against arms sales to Israel in 2025.

That victory “was hard fought”, Red Pepper said.

In March 2024, Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham wrote:

There is no contradiction for a trade union to hold a position of solidarity with Palestinian workers, while at the same time refusing to support campaigns that target our members’ workplaces without their support.

A point which most supporters of Palestinian rights would agree is very debatable.

Featured image via the Canary