What's happening is a conflict between different unions - the UAW graduate student union, who support BDS, and the Teamsters, who oppose it.
From the press release, linked:
"UAW 2865, a labor union representing over 13,000 teaching assistants, tutors, and other student-workers at the University of California, has become the first major U.S. labor union to hold a membership vote responding to the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli occupation and in solidarity with Palestinian self-determination. The vote passed, with 65% (almost 2/3) of voting members in support. Over 2100 members voted, a testament to union democracy.
"The measure calls on
1) the University of California to divest from companies involved in Israeli occupation and apartheid;
2) the UAW International to divest from these same entities;
3) the US government to end military aid to Israel.
4) 53 % of voting members also pledged not to “take part in any research, conferences, events, exchange programs, or other activities that are sponsored by Israeli universities complicit in the occupation of Palestine and the settler-colonial policies of the state of Israel” until such time as these universities take steps to end complicity with dispossession, occupation, and apartheid.
- See more at:
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/12/workers-becomes-endorse#sthash.ig3Fqcw6.dpuf"
Despite the Teamsters letter, the membership voted to support BDS.
Additional conflict is likely because organized labor has other unions that organize at military-industrial-congressional complex companies. This is not unusual - these memberships represent numerous jobs.
That said, it's not known if divestment in these companies would necessarily lead to job losses. These companies are primarily government contractors, and it's Congress that influences whether the number of jobs expands or contracts. For example, locally, the sunsetting of the C17 transport plane led to the contraction of the workforce at Boeing in Long Beach. When the government buys less, the production is cut, and people are laid off. Investor money probably helps more in funding expenses like R&D labor (scientists, engineers, etc.), which aren't as well represented by labor unions.
This type of intra-labor conflict is one of the reasons why boycotts focus on companies hostile to labor unions, or with low rates of union membership, like Caterpillar and Hewlett Packard. The fact that they achieved this general level of support is significant.
A group within labor likely to oppose this action are the Jewish Labor Committee. Another group within labor likely to support BDS include US Labor Against War.
http://www.jewishlaborcommittee.org/2014/12/on_the_vote_of_university_of_c.html http://uslaboragainstwar.org/Articles/index?tag=BDS&tag_id=4646 At the SF ports, BDS stopped access to the ports, and the ILWU didn't cross the community picket. While this isn't an endorsement, and the statements around it have a negative cast because they refer to risks to safety, it's really a way to show solidarity by honoring the picket line.
There is a website of labor union folks who support Palestine:
http://laborforpalestine.net/ For the most part, the union locals don't take a position on BDS or Palestine. This is in line with the general trend of not taking positions on international issues, and generally aligning with whatever the state department, by default.
The voter turn-out was extremely low- only 2,000 of the eligible students (Over 50,000) voted for this, essentially hijacking the union.