The Green New Deal Is Dividing Labor Unions

With Meghna Chakrabarti

We look at tensions in the labor movement over the Green New Deal.

Umair Irfan, reporter who covers climate change, energy, and the environment for Vox. (@umairfan)

Vox: "The Green New Deal is fracturing a critical base for Democrats: unions" — "As a statement of principles and goals, the Green New Deal seems to take economic justice and workers’ rights pretty seriously. It calls for a federal jobs guarantee. It says we need workforce retraining, strengthening collective bargaining rights, retirement security, and universal health care.

"The resolution decries 'antilabor policies' and says it must be fleshed out with input from 'frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, [and] worker cooperatives,' with the goal of creating 'high-quality union jobs.'

"Which is why it was so surprising that the leader of the national AFL-CIO — the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, representing more than 12.5 million workers — recently came out against the proposal.

"'We weren’t part of the process, so the worker’s interest wasn’t really figured into it,' AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said last month. 'We would want a whole bunch of changes made so that workers and our jobs are protected in the process.' "

Grace Tatter produced this segment for broadcast.