Jakub Porzycki | Nurfoto | getty images
The largest labor groups are urging senators to oppose a crypto bill containing regulations set for an initial vote on Thursday.
In a letter and email first seen by CNBC, the AFL-CIO, as well as the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, warned senators that the bill could jeopardize the retirement accounts of millions of workers.
The pressure from the unions comes ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s vote on the crypto bill, scheduled for Thursday. Despite Democrats working with Republicans on the bill over the past few months, it is unclear whether any Democrats will support the measure given ongoing concerns about security and ethics provisions in the bill. As of Monday evening, the committee had not yet released the final legislative text for the bill.
SEIU, AFT, NEA and AFSCME said in a previously unpublished letter sent to all senators on Friday that the bill “threatens the stability of workers’ retirement plans, including public pensions, and brings significant instability to retirement savings accounts.”
“This legislation invites the cryptocurrency industry to take massive risks, knowing that if those risky bets don’t pay off, it will be working people and retirees, not crypto billionaires, who will pay the price,” the groups said in the letter.
The AFL-CIO also sent an email to Banking Committee members on Friday, saying that “absent adequate regulation, embedding cryptocurrencies … and other digital assets into the real economy will have destabilizing effects while benefiting issuers and platforms at the expense of working people.”
Labor groups are not the only ones actively opposing the bill. The banking industry is also fighting against a provision in the bill that says crypto companies offering interest-like payments on stablecoin holdings would threaten bank deposits. The crypto industry has pushed back, saying the proposed agreement would ban such practices.