Support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline

Passed by a vote of the AFT 2121 Delegate Assembly 9/27/2016

Resolution in Support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and in Opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline

Whereas the labor movement is rooted in the simple and powerful idea of solidarity with all struggles for dignity, justice and respect;

Whereas the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux and potentially 17 million others are threatened by the Dakota Access Pipeline route, a 1,170 mile oil pipeline that would run from North Dakota to Illinois; Whereas the pipeline could possibly desecrate the ancestral burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux;

Whereas the pipeline, which would come within half a mile of the reservation’s water supply and burial grounds, could contaminate their community;

Whereas the Army Corps of Engineers gave the Texas company building the pipeline “fast track” approval this summer without consulting with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe;

Whereas on September 15, 2016 the AFL-CIO released a statement urging the Obama administration to allow construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline;

Whereas environmental degradation and climate change, caused in significant part by the burning of fossil fuels, poses a fundamental threat to all life on earth;

Whereas AFT Local 2121 stands with all working people as they struggle for dignity, respect and justice in the workplace and in their communities, and against corporate greed; and

Whereas it is labor’s unique responsibility to build a just transition to an economy of both full employment and ecological survival; now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that AFT Local 2121:

1. stands with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in South and North Dakota as they fight to protect their community, their land and their water supply against environmental and cultural degradation, and
2. calls on the Federal Government to halt construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, and
3. encourages labor unions, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others who would be impacted to come together to discuss a collective resolution.