Green New Deal Is Pushing ‘Economic And Social Devastation,’ Union Boss Says

The Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) slammed a Congressional climate resolution introduced by Democratic lawmakers Thursday as pushing “economic and social devastation” on the U.S.

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey rolled out the Green New Deal Thursday, but Ocasio-Cortez’s office began leaking details of the resolution a day early, nearly botching the entire release.

Ocasio-Cortez leaked a FAQ sheet and the text of the resolution to NPR and posted a copy of the FAQ on her official website. The FAQ touted more radical goals than the resolution, such as providing welfare for those “unwilling to work,” ending airplane travel and decommissioning all nuclear power plants. Ocasio-Cortez eventually removed the FAQ sheet from her website.

The Green New Deal resolution “is exactly how not to successfully enact desperately needed infrastructure investment. It is exactly how not to enact a progressive agenda to address our nation’s dangerous income inequality. And it is exactly how not to win support for critical measures to curb climate change,” LiUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said in a statement Wednesday.

Many of the goals outlined in the Green New Deal are supported by LiUNA and other unions, but the lawmakers behind the resolution strapped “laudable” policies to “the sails of fantasy [ensuring] that they all go down on a sinking ship,” O’Sullivan said.

“It is difficult to take this unrealistic manifesto seriously, but the economic and social devastation it would cause if it moves forward is serious and real,” O’Sullivan said.

The Green New Deal will likely be a campaign issue at least for the next couple of years. Republicans are calling resolution “socialist” and are already using it to campaign for 2020.

“Every Republican in the country should get on their hands and knees and thank Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” former White House official Andy Surabian told Axios.

The Teamsters union declined to comment on this article. The Service Employees International Union; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; United Steelworkers union and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers did not respond to a request to comment by press time.