no they're not. this is a very misleading headline, covering very cynical politics. unifor is angling for refineries to be built in canada. they're going to co-opt the first nations struggle to try and get that done, but to suggest that they are "on the same side" as first nations, here, is a flat out lie.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/energy-union-backs-first-nations-against-northern-gateway/article15799496/

‘We’ll be there in solidarity to support them,’ says Unifor area director Gavin McGarrigle.

first nations would be wise to avoid any strategic planning with big labour.

thankfully, i think they mostly realize this.

the truth is that the article itself is probably trying to lump together the opposition to the pipeline as "unions and indians". the conservatives benefit from that kind of optics, as both groups are deeply unpopular.

you can hear ezra, now.

"today, an evil axis of communists and savages descended upon the peaceful oil executives of central alberta and threatened to sacrifice them to their nature gods unless certain concessions were made. we're going to dedicate this entire program to the existential threat that this axis poses to our freedoms in canada."

that's only a mild exaggeration.

in truth, unifor does not care about the ecological issues. if they get their way, and refineries get built, they will immediately swing their support for pipelines to move the refined product. that could conceivably have a catastrophic effect on the ability to actually resist.

it's hard to reject temporary allies, especially when they're powerful, but first nations should really be making an attempt to clarify that the nature of their opposition is drastically different than unifor's. unifor's solidarity should be rejected in no uncertain terms. this would hopefully have the effect of undercutting support for unifor's proposed refineries, which is a more important goal than building a level of transparently fake solidarity that will eventually backfire.

unifor's "solidarity" is, in fact, an attempt to co-opt an ecological movement into one for economic nationalism, at the cost of severe ecological ruin.