On Monday, August 30th, Minneapolis and St. Paul Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum, other Congressional members, and members of the Minnesota legislature submitted a letter to President Biden about the Line 3 replacement project.
The letter reiterates many issues that have been reviewed and approved by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, along with other issues that have been litigated in a court of law for years.
Most disturbing in this letter is the claim that Line 3 workers, the majority of whom are members of the affiliated trades we represent, are a threat to the health and safety of the very communities they live and work in. Candidly, we can disagree about whether a construction project should move forward but lying about and the gaslighting of our members working on the project will not be tolerated.
The politicians who signed on to this appalling and intentionally misleading letter do a great disservice to every citizen of our state by spreading false information and sowing fear related to those members who go to work daily to earn a living wage. These workers are doing a job that’s tougher and more physically demanding than any job these politicians had prior to what they view as their current job – creating division amongst their fellow Minnesotans. The Line 3 workers deserve to be able to do their job without being maligned and disparaged by elected officials who know that their claims are false.
Line 3 workers are our neighbors and our friends. They should be respected for the work they do – providing a quality construction project that our state needs, doing it safely and with the most skilled craftmanship in the industry.
We support our brothers and sisters working on the Line 3 project and know that they provide an important service to our state. In the strongest terms we condemn the false claims included in the letter along with those that perpetuate the lies it contains.
As an organization that represents more than 70,000 members who work and pay taxes in communities all across the state, including the very same communities that Line 3 is passing through, we will remember the elected officials who support us as well as the ones who disparage us.