'Direct attack': Major union comes out swinging at GOP bill

President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," currently in the middle of Senate amendment and rewrite, got a tongue-lashing from a major union on Monday.

In a statement, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, or IBEW, President Kenneth Cooper slammed the bill as "a direct attack on working families" that funnels "tax breaks to the rich while turning its back on the people who power this country."

IBEW took issue with the bill's tax increases on lower-income people, while also taking an indirect jab at the bill's move to phase out green energy subsidies, many of which have flowed to rural areas and communities that voted for the GOP.

"The IBEW strongly opposes any proposal that guts infrastructure investment, especially plans like this one that sacrifice existing economic development while providing no clear benefit to working Americans. At a time when we should be investing in energy independence at home, this bill forces our economy to rely on foreign adversaries while dramatically increasing energy bills for every household and draining local communities of the jobs they rely on," said the statement. "Make no mistake, this bill will cost hundreds of thousands of good-paying construction jobs, billions of work hours, and hundreds of billions in lost wages and economic benefits to America’s middle class."

IBEW, a union of electrical tradesmen affiliated with the AFL-CIO, has long been critical of Trump, issuing a report during the 2016 election on how he frequently opted for nonunion labor in his development projects.

The Trump-backed tax cut bill, which has also come under fire for slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and food assistance, faces more obstacles if it passes the Senate and heads to the House, where a number of both far-right and more moderate GOP lawmakers are dissatisfied that the current version does not fulfill the promises House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) made to pass the initial version in the first place.