Editor's note: This article was first published by Common Dreams,
an independent and non-profit source providing breaking news and
views for the progressive community since 1997.
T
he afl-cio, the nation's largest labor federation,
generated waves of criticism by standing against
the Standing Rock Sioux and supportive allies
last week when it endorsed the Dakota Access
Pipeline—a project opponents say threatens trib-
al sovereignty, regional water resources, and
sacred burial grounds while also undermining
efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
Yet while a public statement by AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka
stirred widespread backlash, what has not been seen by the general
public is an internal letter which preceded that statement—a letter
which not only reveals a deeper and growing rift within the federa-
tion, but one that also helps expose the troubling distance between
the needs of workers and priorities of policy-makers on a planet
where runaway temperatures are said to be changing everything.
Trumka said the pipeline deserved the AFL-CIO's support
because it was "providing over 4,500 high-quality, family supporting
jobs" and argued that "attacking individual construction projects is
neither effective nor fair to the workers involved."
In turn, many of the tribes and their progressive allies saw the
statement as a short-sighted, if predictable, position on behalf of the
federation's building trade unions. Norman Solomon, writing on
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Amid Tribal Pipeline Fight,
Internal AFL-CIO Letter
Exposes "Very Real Split"
By Jon Queally
