Taking sides at Standing Rock

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Socialist Action’s vice-presidential candidate Karen Schraufnagel has filed extensive reports to this pa­ per about the confrontations last month in remote Standing Rock, North Dakota. Efforts aiming to halt construction of a pipeline from the Bakken fracking fields to refineries in Illinois drew world attention to several important issues concerning Indigenous Peo­ ple’s rights, environmental and climate justice, and peaceful protests under violent attack.

Less publicized has been an escalating division among the top officials in the union movement. The AFL-CIO issued a statement endorsing the pipeline and chastising its opponents—nothing surprising in that.

But major AFL-CIO affiliates—Amalgamated Transit Union, American Postal Workers Union, Communica­ tions Workers of America, and National Nurses Unit­ ed—took strong principled stands in support of the protesters. So did some non-AFL unions such as the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers and the Service Employees International Union. The Pride at Work constituency group and the Labor Network for Sustainability also weighed in on the side of the dem­ onstrators.

This solidarity infuriated the Building Trades bu­ reaucrats, who were eager to go forward on tem­ porary jobs for their dues-payers—including des­ ecration of tribal burial lands. They called them out through a confidential internal letter to the heads of all AFL unions from Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, represent­ ing 14 crafts.

The letter also slandered the protesters as threaten­ ing violence against union workers. The only violence exhibited at Standing Rock was by the company’s hired “security” thugs. It was no coincidence that the letter.

To the chagrin of the not easily embarrassed propipeline bureaucrats, brother McGarvey’s missive was leaked to Jon Queally, a conscientious journalist at the Common Dreams website. He verified its au­ thenticity before posting a PDF copy online and col­ lected a lot of “no comments.” One of the few to speak on record was the never bashful Rose Ann DeMoro of the NNU, “What we’re seeing here is the pipeline company—and this is nothing new—pitting workers against workers.”

Queally also quoted labor historian and co-founder of the Labor Network for Sustainability Jeremy Bre­ cher: “The core of the problem is that the AFL-CIO has consistently opposed significant cuts to climate-de­ stroying projects, like Dakota Access, while failing to adequately advocate for policies that would actually address climate change in a worker-friendly way.”

Finally getting these divisions at the top out in the open is progress. The next indicated step is involving the union ranks—and unorganized workers and stu­ dents—who have a stake in the debates around class and climate justice. n SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 2016 3

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with an August announcement of another 1000 layoffs. Special education teachers, nurses and social workers, (We shudder to think of what happened to the recalcitrant .04 percent.)”

In reality, the CTU is a model for demo­ cratic functioning. Full and open discus­ sions of important decisions take place freely among the membership within the schools and within its elected House of Delegates.

The union estimates that since 2010, CTU has given up more than $2 billion in lost pay raises, employer contributions to the pension fund, and thousands of teacher layoffs. Just this year, erosion of teachers’ income through the loss of pay and benefits, and lay-offs of teachers and paraprofessionals, account for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The impact of cutbacks to Chicago pub­ lic schools has been devastating, primar­ ily affecting schools in Black, Latino, and working-class communities. Students were victims of school closings and con­ solidations over the last few years espe­ cially. In 2013 the mayor closed 50 public schools, affecting close to 40,000 Chicago students in low-income communities.