National Nurses United

support a President, regardless of party affiliation, overriding a Feder- al Judge that he or she appointed based on dubious claims because Hollywood celebrities and violent activists demanded so? We shouldn't then complain if in the future the roles may be reversed on a policy matter or the rule of law that has been upended by the Execu- tive Branch affecting more than just Building Trades unions or a mat- ter of basic labor law affecting the entirety of the AFL-CIO. I'm not sure which of these startling precedents is worse but these organiza- tions and their leadership have amazingly and rather impressively aligned themselves with both at the expense of AFL-CIO members." Though McGarvey says in the letter that pipeline workers have been intimidated and made fearful by the presence of those object- ing to the pipeline, much of the publicly documented violence so far has been against tribal members—including those last month who were pepper-sprayed and attacked by dogs handled by private secu- rity contractors hired by the pipeline company. As Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland this week: "Thousands have gathered peacefully in Standing Rock in sol- idarity against the pipeline. We stand in peace but have been met with violence." McGarvey does claim in his letter that the unions he represents "are sensitive to the long and tragic history of mistreatment of Native Americans," but does nothing to address the repeated and consistent arguments of the Standing Rock Sioux and others who say the Dakota Access project is a direct descendant of that same mistreatment. Criticizing the unions standing with the tribes, McGarvey accus- es their leaders of "callously" and "hypocritically" disregarding the pipeline workers. He also declares the "misinformation and inaccu- racies that [these union members] have used to justify their opposi- tion to this project to be nothing short of astounding if not wholly ignorant." McGarvey's letter concludes by demanding a "public apol- ogy" by those unions "for not only the uninformed public opposition to this project" but for also "initiating the conscious decoupling of the American Labor Movement or, what remains of it." Those interviewed for this story described the overall tone of McGarvey's letter as ranging from "strong" to "aggressive" to "threat- ening." That these tensions exist, of course, is no more a secret within labor circles than how under McGarvey's leadership the building trade unions have forged controversial labor-management partner- ships with large corporations and celebrated stronger ties with pow- erful industry lobby groups like the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the American Chemistry Council. Still, the latest intra-fed- eration conflict takes place in the midst of a contentious presidential campaign, one in which the condition of workers and the climate threat (or denial of that threat) have played a prominent role. Tom Owens, NABTU's director of marketing and communica- tions, said his group would not comment for this story, stating in an email: "The letter speaks for itself." And though not all the unions named in the letter had responded to interview requests by the time this story went to press, RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the NNU, reacted by saying the con- tents and tone of McGarvey's remarks were troubling, yet also instructive. First of all, said DeMoro, she remains "absolutely sympathetic" to those workers who will be out of work if this pipeline project is halt- ed. "I understand these workers are desperate for jobs," she told Common Dreams in a phone interview. "But this letter portrays us as the enemy of workers—which is just outrageous because nurses are tremendous and tireless advocates for workers, their jobs, their fam- ilies, and their health." But there are also bigger questions that must be asked, she said, regarding the sacredness of the lands these tribes are defending as well as the climate implications for this project and others like it. "I mean, would you build a pipeline under Arlington National Cemetery? I don't think so. And so on that point, sacred is sacred. You just don't do this," she said. "And what we're seeing here is the pipeline company—and this is nothing new—pitting workers against workers." Ultimately what these latest internal tensions expose, DeMoro and others argue, is an absolute failure of the political class and elected officials to move from talking about "creating green jobs" to actually approving and implementing policies that would do so on the scale that climate scientists say is necessary and policy experts have shown is both possible and affordable. Who's Standing Up and Who's Rolling Over? in his response to the letter, Jeremy Brecher, a historian and researcher with the Labor Network for Sustainability, joined 20 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 "I mean, would you build a pipeline under Arlington National Cemetery? I don't think so. And so on that point, sacred is sacred. You just don't do this. And what we're seeing here is the pipeline company—and this is nothing new—pitting workers against workers." —RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of NNU

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