You probably have heard much about the supposedly great union opposition to President Obama's courageous decision to stand up to Big Oil and refuse to approve the Keystone Pipeline without a full review. Yes, a few unions do oppose it, but many big unions have joined environmental groups IN SUPPPORT OF PRESIDENT'S OBAMA'S DECISION, and others are neutral.
Following is a statement by the Natural Resources Defense Council, CWA, SEIU, UAW, Transport Workers Union, Sierra Club, United Steelworkers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union.
Washington, D.C. -- The Keystone XL Pipeline is a complex project which deserved the careful consideration regarding its environmental and economic impacts that the Obama Administration planned to provide.
In a cynical move, the House Republican leadership called for a rapid decision on the pipeline in exchange for agreeing to keep the payroll tax cut in place. The payroll tax cut enacted last year has been an important part of efforts to turn around our struggling economy. While the House Republicans wrapped job creation rhetoric around their pipeline demands, they have rejected numerous opportunities to support programs creating good U.S. jobs. Here are a few of the jobs initiatives proposed by the Obama administration that Republican members of Congress have rejected:
•The House initially voted against again extending Unemployment Insurance benefits, as well as against the measure to continue the cut in payroll taxes. If the House action had held, the economy would have lost 1.5 million jobs.
•The Republicans are blocking any consideration of the Restore the American Dream Act which would create/save 2.3 million jobs in 2012 and 3.1 million jobs in 2013 without offering any alternative that would lead to direct job creation.
•The Republicans opposed the extension of the Highway Trust Fund which would create 100,000s of jobs and provide for critical infrastructure repair.
•The House Republicans allowed the funding for crucial modernization projects for our airline infrastructure to expire, at the expense of tens of thousands of jobs, to pursue a political agenda to hold down wages and block democratic elections in the airline industry, the goal of one corporation.
•House Republicans rejected Obama administration initiatives to fund jobs for teachers, firefighters and police, despite strong community support for more responders.
A project this far-reaching deserved better than the “politics as usual” strategy of a do-nothing Republican Congress. Their job blackmail agenda is simply wedge politics. Addressing global climate change, establishing sustainable and secure energy sources, and creating and retaining safe and family-supportive jobs are keys to a positive future for our children and grandchildren. President Obama has acted wisely.
Communication Workers of America
Yes, he has. President Obama has acted wisely.
LIUNA (the Laborers' Union), which understandably wants the jobs a pipeline would create, is freaking out about unions supporting President Obama's decision:
"It’s repulsive, it’s disgusting and we’re not going to stand idly by,” Laborers’ International Union of North America General President Terry O’Sullivan told POLITICO. “The rules have changed. So we’ll react accordingly.”
O’Sullivan said the first move will be to pull his union out of the BlueGreen Alliance — a coalition of environmental groups and labor unions that represented nearly all of the groups that signed a joint statement backing Obama. (The BlueGreen Alliance itself did not take a position on the pipeline.)
Read more: http://www.politico.com/...
What I find repulsive is a union like LIUNA in bed with the Republicans who screw workers every day. LIUNA is on the wrong side of history here. LIUNA is making common cause with the Republicans and Big Oil. We need good, green, union jobs instead.
Kudos to SEIU, UAW, CWA, Transport Workers Union, United Steelworkers Union and Amalgamated Transit Union.
A Green/Blue alliance (environmentalists/labor) is the way of the future. Unions won't always agree with environmentalists, and vice versa, but these unions and environmental organizations are stepping up in mutual respect for the right action. This is the road to a better tomorrow, tomorrow (ok, stole that from Colbert). It is the road to a better America.