Biden May Be the Most Pro-Labor President Ever; That May Not Save Unions

Labor News

President Joseph Biden, courtesy of the White House site

Reprinted from The New York Times by Noam Scheiber on March 25, 2021.

Two months into the new administration, labor leaders are proclaiming Joseph Biden to be the most union-friendly president of their lifetime — and “maybe ever,” as Steve Rosenthal, a former political director for the AFL-CIO, said in an interview.

Biden has moved quickly to oust government officials whom unions deemed hostile to labor, and to reverse Trump-era rules that weakened worker protections. He has pushed through legislation sending hundreds of billions of dollars to cities and states, aid that public-sector unions consider essential, and tens of billions to shore up union pension plans.

Perhaps most notably, the president appeared in a video alluding to a union vote underway at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama, warning that “there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda” — an unusually outspoken move by a president in a standard union election. …

NY Times 3/25

About Jeffrey Burman 861 Articles
Jeff Burman served on the Guild’s Board of Directors from 1992 to 2019. He is now retired. He can be reached at jeffrey.s.burman.57@gmail.com.