Statement by the CWA Committee on Human Rights in Support of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Washington, D.C. – The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Committee on Human Rights 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.

CWA stands with all working people as they struggle for dignity, respect and justice in the workplace and in their communities.

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. In addition to endangering those communities, the pipeline could possibly desecrate the ancestral burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux; this utter disrespect and violation cannot be allowed.

Members of the tribe point out that the pipeline, which would come within half a mile of the reservation's water supply and burial grounds, would contaminate their community. 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.

CWA, through our Committee on Human Rights, stands with working people and against corporate greed, whether we're fighting for clean water in Flint, Mich., against bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would hurt U.S. jobs and communities, or the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to safeguard their community.

The labor movement is rooted in the simple and powerful idea of solidarity with all struggles for dignity, justice and respect. CWA will continue to fight against the interests of the 1% and corporate greed and firmly stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe against the environmental and cultural degradation of their community.