A Blue-Collar Worker Rages Against The Leftwing NGO Machine

Finally, an American worker is fighting back against the leftwing billionaire-funded NGO machine trying to shut down an entire industry that puts food on his family’s table. A new lawsuit brought by Impresa Legal Group is an excellent first step toward fighting back the astroturf campaign attacking the data center industry.

The value of the case is that it puts specific allegations targeting named defendants before a federal court. Now, real evidence will have to carry the argument.

Impresa says it’s ready. In a November 4 announcement, the firm and local counsel Edward Chung filed the proposed class action in the Western District of Washington on behalf of Monte Pringle and other workers. Pringle is a licensed electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 191. The firm says he lost multiple long-term work opportunities over the last two years because of the defendants’ campaign. 

For all the political propaganda from the left about defending working families, the worker often disappears from the data center debate. We hear about the tech companies, the investors, and the activists instead. Pringle puts a new face on the argument: A skilled tradesman whose next contract depends on somebody being allowed to build something. It’s amazing we even have to have this conversation in today’s America, but here we are.

“This case is about protecting American workers and American jobs,” says Richard Kelsey, counsel to Impresa. “The lead class representative is an electrician with decades of experience who has lost substantial contracts and opportunities through a concerted war on our digital economy. The battlefield has been data centers.”

The defendants identified in the firm’s announcement are Evan Sutton, Hannah Krieg, Hannah Saunders, Southend Indivisible Inc., Seattle Indivisible, the Proteus Fund and the Open Society Foundation. Impresa details claims for tortuous interference with contractual relationship, civil conspiracy, and aiding and abetting, seeking compensatory and punitive damages.

The announcement alleges a coordinated campaign of harassment, intimidation and disinformation targeting data center operations and workers. It says employees feared physical harm to themselves and their families, along with losing their livelihoods.

Granted, those are allegations, not findings. But they describe a dispute far different from neighbors asking reasonable questions at a zoning hearing. Peaceful opposition is protected speech – threats, lies, and intimidation tactics are not, or at least they shouldn’t be.

The funding question at hand deserves particular scrutiny here. Open Society’s own account of its origins admits to billions of funding from George Soros and his family. That establishes the leftwing billionaire NGO connection, but does not establish who financed and organized any specific protest action. That question will be decided in court.

Kelsey puts the latter question this way: “The complaint alleges that funding for this campaign against data center companies, their employees, and contractors may trace back to foreign economic competitors.”

The policy consequences are increasingly obvious. Seattle’s City Council unanimously approved a data center moratorium in June. The city’s announcement celebrated a framework based on “Seattle values.” Apparently, an electrician’s opportunity to earn an honest living doesn’t count among those “values.” Amazing.

No one should question the right of communities to insist on sound infrastructure planning and execution. Likewise, it is perfectly appropriate to insist that developers pay their own way and do no harm to the broader community. But neither proposition requires or justifies treating an entire industry as a bogeyman or turning the workers who build it into collateral damage in pursuit of cynical ideological goals.

“Data centers are the economic superhighway for American prosperity,” Kelsey said. He also says Impresa is exploring whether similar claims exist elsewhere in America. 

Good. Workers deserve a way to challenge organized interference with their livelihoods, not another lecture about why their job must be sacrificed to a political agenda coordinated by powerful interests with no connection to their communities.

All of this will be tested in court, and the discovery process as the plaintiffs trace the flow of money should be absolutely fascinating. If workers like Pringle can prove they’ve been deliberately harmed, those responsible should pay. It would be a wonderful way to turn the aim of the lawfare machine back onto the leftwing interests who invented it.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.