Uh-oh! AFL-CIO Says Green New Deal 'Could Cause Immediate Harm to Millions'

Nick Kangadis | March 13, 2019
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You know a socialist plan is certifiably bad when a labor organization disagrees with it. Those two entities have perceivably walked hand-in-hand for years.

So for the nation’s largest collection of unions, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), to vehemently disagree with possibly the most radical plan in the history of the United States should say something to everyone, regardless of someone’s political persuasion.

In a letter to both Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the AFL-CIO Energy Committee said that they “will not accept proposals that could cause immediate harm to millions of our members and their families.”

That wasn’t the only less-than-complimentary thing the letter said about the Green New Deal:

We welcome the call for labor rights and dialogue with labor, but the Green New Deal resolution is far too short on specific solutions that speak to the jobs of our members and the critical sectors of our economy. It is not rooted in an engineering-based approach and makes promises that are not achievable or realistic.

Ouch!

While the letter did push back against the extreme nature of the Green New Deal on more than one occasion, the AFL-CIO did agree that certain issues do need more attention paid to them, like climate change.

According to the letter:

America’s labor unions agree that climate change must be addressed, and we agree on the need to invest in the development and deployment of technologies like solar, wind, nuclear, hydro-electric, carbon capture and utilization, battery storage, and high-speed rail that limit carbon emissions.

It doesn’t seem that the AFL-CIO necessarily disagrees with the sentiment of the Green New Deal. It could be that they just want it to make sense for the workers they represent, so that they can justify the cut they take from their members paychecks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) were copied on the letter as they are democratic leaders in Congress.

H/T: Townhall

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