Union leaders warn Green New Deal may lead to poverty: 'Members are worried about putting food on the table'

Labor unions are warning that the "Green New Deal" proposed by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is vague and potentially dangerous, signaling that the progressive proposal may be in for even more turbulence following a rocky rollout last week. While conservatives have fiercely criticized the Green New Deal resolution for promising a job to "all people of the United States" -- including those "unwilling to work," according to an accompanying document published, and later disavowed, by Ocasio-Cortez's office -- the pushback from union leaders indicates that the progressive proposal has not won over a core element of the liberal base. Speaking to Reuters, a spokesman for the coal industry union United Mine Workers (UMWA) characterized Ocasio-Cortez's goals as lofty and potentially dangerous to rank-and-file blue collar workers. In particular, union officials took umbrage at the resolution's call for a "fair and just transition for all communities and workers" in order to "achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions" in the span of just ten years.
“We’ve heard words like ‘just transition’ before, but what does that really mean?" the spokesman, Phil Smith, said in an interview. "Our members are worried about putting food on the table." UMWA, which includes approximately 80,000 members, represents not only coal miners and clean coal technicians, but also manufacturing workers, health care workers, and corrections officers in both the U.S. and Canada. Added Yvette Pena O’Sullivan, the executive director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA): “We will never settle for ‘just transition’ language as a solution to the job losses that will surely come from some of the policies in the resolution." LIUNA, a construction union, has about 500,000 members, including 80,000 in Canada. And executives at another construction union, the North America’s Building Trades Union (NABTU), raised similar concerns. Union members “working in the oil and gas sector can make a middle-class living, whereas renewable energy firms have been less generous,” Sean McGarvey, NABTU's president, said last week...MORE