As the AFL-CIO, the most influential union in the U.S., throws its support behind the proposed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline, a prominent Canadian labor union is taking the opposite route, referring to the $7 billion project as a short-sighted employment Band-Aid that could lead to environmental disaster.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada has emerged as a vocal opponent of the Keystone XL project following the release of a Canadian government-sponsored, pro-Keystone ad campaign. The campaign promotes the pipeline as a pro-jobs and pro-environment initiative. The union is alleging the budget for Natural Resources Canada, the government body responsible for the advertisements, has increased by 7,000 percent since 2010.
Dave Coles, president of the union, has come out swinging, blasting the government for using federal funds to promote an industry that, in the long term, isn’t the solution to Canadian employment woes.
“After slashing its spending on environmental regulation enforcement, Natural Resources Canada has found millions of dollars to push a pipeline that will export Canadian jobs, trample First Nations rights and is bad for the environment,” Dave Coles, president of the union, said in a press release.
Canadian First Nations and union representatives are concerned about the source of the oil. The industry is destroying thousands of acres of Alberta wildlife habitat, home to caribou and grizzly bears, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
For the union, the cost isn’t worth the gain. As Coles sees it, Canada should be investing in jobs that will persist beyond the boom-bust oil cycle.
“The long-term advantage to Alberta is to have industrial jobs here, not by supporting refining jobs in Texas or Asia,” Coles told the Fort McMurray Today newspaper. “I don’t want to see the jobs disappear, I was in Alberta in the ‘80s when the whole thing collapsed.”
The Canadian union represents more than 3,000 employees of Suncor, a company specializing in commercial development of the Canadian oil sands, along with thousands of workers in the construction industry. The union is in the midst of a merger with the Canadian Auto Workers union. According to the Fort McMurray Today, the merger would hoist the union to the top spot among the private sector.
In the U.S., TransCanada estimates the project would create 20,000 jobs — 13,000 in the construction industry and 7,000 related to manufacturing.
The pipeline would pump more than 700,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast of Texas every day, crossing through seven states. Opposition to the project has emerged among Native Americans, particularly in South Dakota, who allege construction of the pipeline violates long-standing treaties that give them access to the land for hunting and fishing purposes.
In Nebraska, ranchers and farmers have emerged as anti-Keystone advocates, voicing concern over the potential impact spills could have on their livelihoods. In Oklahoma, environmental advocates have taken extreme measures following the Sierra Club’s calls to engage in civil disobedience to halt pipeline construction.
A decision regarding the pipeline is expected from President Barack Obama by the end of the year, although no definitive timeline has been set. Obama delayed the pipeline decision in 2011, arguing more time was needed to assess environmental concerns.
Congress has tried to take the matter into its own hands. In May, the House passed a bill that would remove the president from the equation, allowing Congress to approve construction of the project.