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Labor leaders back pipeline
News Articles | World-Herald | Ross Boettcher | September 16, 2010
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Nebraska labor leaders and representatives of a company that wants to build an oil pipeline through the western part of the state were expected to announce an agreement Thursday on the wages, hours and working conditions for the union workers hired for the project.
The Omaha Federation of Labor favors the $7 billion Keystone XL project because it could create hundreds of jobs and generate tax revenue for communities where it is built, the organization said in a press release Wednesday.
According to the agreement, about 75 percent of the workers on the project will be laborers, with the remaining jobs going to operating engineers, Teamsters and some steamfitters, said Ron Kaminski, business manager of Laborers’ International Local 1140 in Omaha.
“We’re talking about good-paying jobs that provide benefits for the people working on that project,” Kaminski said.
TransCanada’s pipeline project, which still is awaiting federal approval, has been criticized by Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and three Nebraska environmental groups because of safety concerns and letters that the company sent to landowners.
The letters threatened to use eminent domain to gain easements for the pipeline unless landowners agreed to terms within 30 days. TransCanada since has lifted its negotiating deadlines and doesn’t plan to use eminent domain at this time, a company spokesman said.
The U.S. State Department is taking the lead role in reviewing the proposal because the pipeline crosses an international border from Canada into the United States.
Supporters have said the pipeline would provide a safe, stable supply of crude oil. Opponents say it is unnecessary, unsafe and would expand an environmentally harmful way of extracting oil.
Tagged with: keystone xl, nebraska, jobs, omaha federation of labor
