Koah LaOvdim

Koah LaOvdim

Koah LaOvdim – Democratic Workers’ Organization
כוח לעובדים
Founded	2007 (2007)
Members	18,000 (2020)
Website	workers.org.il

Koah LaOvdim (Hebrew: כוח לעובדים, lit. 'Power to the Workers') is an Israeli labor union organization founded in 2007 (and registered in 2008) as an initiative by a group of social and labor activists to create a new, active and militant general labor union in Israel.^[1] The organization was established as a result of several failed labor struggles and unionization attempts in Israel in the preceding years, primarily that of the temporary labourers in the Ben Gurion international airport in 2006.^[2]

In the years since its establishment, Koah LaOvdim have increased its numbers substantially and by 2017 it became Israel's third largest labor union with around 35,000 workers represented by the organization.^[3] The organization's establishment is often credited with initiating the "unionization boom" of the late 2000s in Israel.^[3]

The union's political position is on the left, with their stated aims being:

• To assist unorganized workers in getting organized in their workplace both in the public and the private sector.
• To promote the existence of organized labor in the Israeli economy.
• To wage an uncompromising struggle in the defense of workers’ rights and the improvement of their pay and working conditions.
• To work for the establishment of social and economic justice, a welfare state and industrial democracy.^[1]

Koah LaOvdim is a multi-national, transethnic and cross-sectional organization, unionizing workers from all sectors of Israeli society, with equality and solidarity between Jews and Arabs being one of the organization's core beliefs,^[4] and the organization have worked against racist incidents against Arab workers in Israel.^[5]

Koah LaOvdim is also a proponent of feminism and gender equality in the workforce, and it maintains a feminist section "Koah LaOvdot".^[6]

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