New poll shows more than half of American union members support the Green New Deal, as SEIU becomes the first national union to endorse the plan.
Green New Deal Picks Up 2 Major Union Endorsements As Labor Support Grows
A new poll shows more than half of American union members support the Green New Deal, as SEIU becomes the first national union to endorse the plan.www.huffpost.com/...
"The Green New Deal picked up its second major union endorsement this week, highlighting growing support from labor leaders just as a new poll shows a majority of union workers back the movement.
On Thursday, the Service Employees International Union’s executive board voted to approve a resolution backing the GND, declaring itself the first national union to do so. That follows a similar endorsement by the Association of Flight Attendants, which is part of the Communications Workers of America union."www.huffpost.com/...
"Unions may seem like a shoo-in constituency for a policy that, in its early present form, calls for a job guarantee, promises millions of “high-quality union jobs” and condemns “antilabor policies.” Even so, the endorsements marked significant victories for the Green New Deal movement, which faces fierce opposition from powerful wings of labor.
The influential construction unions, historically opposed to any policies that jeopardize fossil fuel infrastructure, have come out hard against the Green New Deal. The AFL-CIO criticized the plan to zero out emissions by 2030 as “not achievable or realistic.” Unions in California protested the GND at a state Democratic Party convention last week in San Francisco, offering a glimpse at how the proposal could prove electorally divisive even in blue states.
The political splits within labor, however, belie the findings of a new poll that found more than half of union workers in the United States back the movement for a national industrial policy aimed at keeping global warming from reaching catastrophic levels.
New survey data from the left-leaning think tank Data for Progress show 52% of current union members backing the GND, compared to 22% opposed, 21% who didn’t know and 5% who felt neutral. For respondents who live with at least one active union member, an even divide emerged, with 27% in support and 27% in opposition to the GND, another 30% unsure and 17% neutral.
“This is a big shift. We have to have a big conversation here,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told HuffPost on Friday. “It’s a representation of the momentum that’s growing around the Green New Deal.”