The AFL-CIO, the federation of labor unions and the organized labor movement in the United States, has issued a statement by their Chief (and Daily Kos Kossack), Richard Trumka, calling on President Obama to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to continue.
“The AFL-CIO supports pipeline construction as part of a comprehensive energy policy that creates jobs, makes the United States more competitive and addresses the threat of climate change. Pipelines are less costly, more reliable and less energy intensive than other forms of transporting fuels, and pipeline construction and maintenance provides quality jobs to tens of thousands of skilled workers……”
“The AFL-CIO calls on the Obama Administration to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline to continue.”
Trumka was reacting in part to the recent news release from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers issued shortly after the D.C. District Federal Court rejected the motion of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for a preliminary injunction to stop construction work.
“We believe that community involvement in decisions about constructing and locating pipelines is important and necessary, particularly in sensitive situations like those involving places of significance to Native Americans. However, once these processes have been completed, it is fundamentally unfair to hold union members’ livelihoods and their families’ financial security hostage to endless delay.”
Trumka’s comments reflect the position of AFL-CIO member unions in building and construction trades, such as the Laborer’s Union, the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters and the Operating Engineers who are building the Dakota Access Pipeline...a project with a construction site union agreement covering the 4 states where it is being constructed.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters previously joined a statement by the AFL-CIO construction trades unions calling on the Governor of North Dakota to take measures to ensure the safety of union construction workers building the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Union construction workers see the illegal trespassing, property damage and vandalism committed by some protestors opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline as safety threats and threats to their jobs and livelihood. Some of the illegal protestors have been charged with felony reckless endangerment and felony conspiracy and criminal facilitation as a result of recent illegal protest actions against the pipeline project last Tuesday and Wednesday.
Trumka noted:
“Furthermore, trying to make climate policy by attacking individual construction projects is neither effective nor fair to the workers involved. “
The Dakota Access Pipeline would ship Bakken area crude oil from North Dakota to a pipeline terminal and distribution point in Patoka, IL, where crude oil shipments could reach markets in the Midwest, East Coast and the Gulf Coast.
Operation of the Dakota Access Pipeline would replace up to 570,000 barrels per day of present railroad crude oil transportation controlled by rail tycoon Warren Buffett who controls and profits from the 11 crude oil rail loading terminals in the Bakken area and the BNSF railroad and its present rail shipments of Bakken crude oil to points east, west and south. Buffett will be able to maintain his profits and market share from railroad crude oil transport if #NoDAPL protestors succeed in shutting down construction of the pipeline and preventing it from coming into operation.
President Obama’s friendship with Buffett means that the President has a conflicting interest to address with his involvement on the issue, similar to the conflicting interest that the President had with his friendship with Tom Steyer on the matter of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which also had strong organized labor support.
Buffett is also a large supporter of the Tides Foundation which houses or directly funds multiple groups fighting pipelines throughout the United States, including Honor the Earth, headed by Green Party member Winona LaDuke.
There are 6 existing petroleum liquid pipelines in North Dakota upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribes drinking water intakes which have caused no discernible problems for the Tribe’s drinking water supply….the closest being a petroleum products pipeline at Mandan, ND heading east from the Tesoro petroleum refinery located there.
The Army Corps permitted crossing objected to by the Standing Rock Tribe will be bored over 90 feet below the bottom of Lake Oahe, will have thicker walled pipe than other pipeline segments and will not discharge pollutants into the impoundment on the Missouri River. The construction of the crossing will prevent problems like those occurring with submerged/exposed pipelines on the bottom of the Yellowstone River in Montana damaged by debris accumulation in river currents.