NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 7, 2016 | PAGE 7
National AFL-CIO supports Dakota Access pipeline project
But AFL-CIO constituency groups
side with the Sioux Tribe of North
Dakota in an attempt to stop it .
The national AFL-CIO has gone
on record supporting the contro-
versial Dakota Access pipeline
project. Conversely, AFL-CIO
constituency groups and a num-
ber of union locals are joining
with the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe of North Dakota in an at-
tempt to stop the project.
The $3.8 billion, 1,172-mile
oil pipeline covers four states. It
will be constructed with union
labor, providing over 4,500 fam-
ily-wage jobs.
The pipeline is slated to cross
the Missouri River less than a
mile from the Sioux Tribe’s
reservation. The Tribe says the
pipeline will destroy sacred bur-
ial sites, and threaten the water,
land, and health of the reserva-
tion.
The Missouri River is one of
the largest water resources in the
U.S., and provides drinking wa-
ter for millions of people.
In July, the tribe sought a
temporary injunction to halt
construction, suing the Army
Corps of Engineers, the federal
agency that approved the proj-
ect. On Sept. 9, the D.C. District
Court declined the injunction.
However, that same day the
Obama Administration called
for a temporary halt on all work.
That action prompted a response
from the AFL-CIO a week later.
“We believe that community
involvement in decisions about
constructing and locating
pipelines is important and nec-
essary, particularly in sensitive
situations like those involving
places of significance to Native
Americans,” President Richard
Trumka said in a press statement
issued Sept. 17. “However, once
these processes have been com-
pleted, it is fundamentally unfair
to hold union members’ liveli-
hoods and their families’ finan-
cial security hostage to endless
delay.”
Trumka called on the Obama
Administration to allow con-
struction to continue.
Meanwhile, union members
have joined with hundreds of
Native Americans outside the
Sioux Tribe in peaceful occupa-
tions of the land. They have been
met by security guards with pep-
per spray and dogs. Several jour-
nalists trying to cover the
protests have been arrested and
charged with trespassing.
A labor coalition that includes
A. Phillip Randolph Institute, the
Asian Pacific American Labor
Alliance, the Coalition of Black
Trade Unionists, the Coalition of
Labor Union Women, the Labor
Council for Latin American Ad-
vancement, and Pride at Work,
encouraged stakeholders — la-
bor unions including the building
trades, the Standing Rock Sioux
Tribe and others who would be
impacted — to come together to
discuss a collective resolution.
“As organizations dedicated to
elevating the struggles of our re-
spective constituencies, we stand
together to support our Native
American kinfolk — one of the
most marginalized and disenfran-
chised groups in our nation’s his-
tory — in their fight to protect
their communities from further
displacement and exploitation,”
the Labor Coalition for Commu-
nity Action said in a press release.
“We remain committed to
fighting the corporate interests
that back this project and name
this pipeline ‘a pipeline of cor-
porate greed.’ We challenge the
labor movement to strategize on
how to better engage and include
Native people and other margin-
alized populations into the labor
movement as a whole.”
(Editor’s Note: Service Em-
ployees Local 503 of Oregon
passed a resolution in support of
the Tribe, and donated $1,503 to
their cause.)
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