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.