Unions Split With Dems Over AOC’s New Green Deal: “Will Destroy Workers’ Livelihoods”!

If you can't read that, here's the full statement, from their website (I've bolded my favorite parts):

LIUNA on the Green New Deal

Statement of Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, On the “Green New Deal”

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 7, 2019) – The “Green New Deal” resolution released today is filled with lessons. It is exactly how not to successfully enact desperately needed infrastructure investment. It is exactly how not to enact a progressive agenda to address our nation’s dangerous income inequality. And it is exactly how not to win support for critical measures to curb climate change.

Attaching a laundry list of laudable proposals unrelated to climate change – proposals which LIUNA and other progressive organizations have long fought for – to the sails of fantasy ensures that they all go down on a sinking ship. Infrastructure issues must be addressed in infrastructure legislation, while climate issues must be addressed through climate legislation.

We enthusiastically support real measures to move toward a carbon-free energy future. We also believe in science, which dictates that we will never reach that goal without lower-carbon bridge fuels such as natural gas and carbon-free fuels such as nuclear power.

According to the resolution, a “Green New Deal” would require every car to be electric-powered and ban all fossil fuels, among other proposals. It is difficult to take this unrealistic manifesto seriously, but the economic and social devastation it would cause if it moves forward is serious and real.

While rhetorically mimicking one of the most successful government initiatives in our country’s history, there is a significant difference between the real New Deal and the “Green New Deal.” The real New Deal put green in working people’s pockets, won massive public support and lifted our nation out of despair. The latter threatens to destroy workers’ livelihoods, increase divisions and inequality, and undermine the very goals it seeks to reach. In short, it is a bad deal.

While LiUNA is busy throwing AOC under the bus, they also seem to be warming to President Trump and his big newe infrastructure proposal:

And it's not only LIUNA.

It's also a little group called the AFLCIO!

Perhaps you've heard of them?

Yeah, they're MASSIVE!  

And they're NOT down with the Green New Deal at all.

Take a look:

Here's more, from the Washington Examiner:

Trade unions are firing back against the progressive "Green New Deal" agenda and, in doing so, are revealing a split between left-leaning labor and climate advocates in the House and Senate.

The "Green New Deal" is “not achievable or realistic," read a letter from AFL-CIO energy committee heads Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

"We will not accept proposals that could cause immediate harm to millions of our members and their families," the union bosses wrote.

The letter was sent last week to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., the two leaders of the "Green New Deal" agenda. The letter has been trickling out on social media this week.

The Green New Deal was released by the two Democrats as a broad call to action on climate change, and has since become the policy platform for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. It calls for radical action to reduce the threat of climate change by switching out the nation's entire energy grid to renewables in just 10 years. It offers few particulars and has raised many feasibility questions by both Democrats and Republicans.

The unions want to be part of the climate change discussion but concede that their members need assurances that the infrastructure development required to meet the nation's climate and energy goals will be part of the discussion.

The investments needed to meet the clean energy and climate goals, including increased natural gas use, must be paired with "strong labor and procurement standards to grow family-sustaining, middle-class union jobs," the letter added.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, tweeted out the letter on Monday and said he agrees with the union bosses. 

Markey said that he and Ocasio-Cortez will partner with the AFL-CIO but said Republicans who do not admit that climate change is real are fooling themselves. The only groups they are "in agreement with are Big Oil and the Koch brothers,” Markey tweeted.

What do YOU think?

Will Trump win the Union vote in 2020?