The president of the half-million member Laborers' International Union of North America has categorized the Obama Administration's January 18 rejection of the construction of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline as "politics at its worst," indicating a potential hit to the Obama re-election campaign from his union base. Here are the details.
* "The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero," said LIUNA General President Terry O'Sullivan in a press release following the U.S. State Department's denial of the project on Wednesday. "We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst. Once again the President has sided with environmentalists instead of blue collar construction workers - even though environmental concerns were more than adequately addressed. Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this."
* According to a statement from President Barack Obama, the Secretary of State recommended the denial of TransCanada's Keystone XL project, which would pipe crude from Canadian oil sands to refineries in Texas. "As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment." Obama went on to state that his denial of the project "is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people."
* But the project had 1,1100 days of governmental review, LIUNA argued. "In addition, experts believe the project would be the safest ever constructed," the union press release stated, citing safety features such as 21,000 sensors that would be monitored via satellite and an alternative route to ease concerns over environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska.
* According to an October 25 press release by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a joint letter was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by four union presidents representing 2.6 million union members, urging State Department approval of the Keystone project that was expected to pour $20 billion of new spending into the economy, create 118,000 jobs and generate $585 million in state and local taxes in communities along the pipeline. The reason for approving the project, the letter stated, was "so that the American worker can get back to the task of strengthening their families and the communities they live in." Joining the Teamsters in sending the letter were the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the U.S. and Canada, International Union of Operating Engineers, and LIUNA.
* While LIUNA has sharply criticized Obama's decision, other unions were praising it. According to a joint press release offered on January 19 by the UAW, Steelworkers, Transport Workers, SEIU, CWA, Sierra Club, and the National Resources Defense Council, "The Keystone XL Pipeline is a complex project which deserved careful consideration regarding its environmental and economic impacts that the Obama Administration planned to provide." The group goes on to blame House Republican leadership for a "cynical move" that "wrapped job creation rhetoric around their pipeline demands" and placed those demands in a payroll tax cut extension bill in December.
* According to the LIUNA press release, unemployment in the construction industry currently stands at 16 percent, with 1.3 million jobless construction workers across the nation.
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