We, the University of Michigan Graduate Employees Organization, AFT Local 3550, stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Lakota Nation, who have the legitimate authority to reject the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. We call on the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to repudiate its support of the Dakota Access Pipeline construction, and by extension, the private owners of Dakota Access, LLC and Energy Transfer Crude Oil Company, LLC.
The environmental and public health costs of oil pipelines are well established. American capitalism has a long history of offloading those costs, like its other environmental costs, on people of color and particularly on Indigenous nations. We do not believe that continuing this harmful and unjust practice will sustainably advance workers’ rights and interests. Instead, it will degrade the water supply, harm humans and non-humans who rely on the water and land, and exacerbate the continuing climate change crisis.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is an assault on the rights and safety of the Indigenous community, and has already been an excuse for brutality and civil rights violations against peaceful protesters.We join those of our brothers and sisters in the labor movement who have already spoken out against this wrong-headed and fundamentally unjust project. We ask those who have not yet done so to join us.
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