"The Most Pro-Union President You've Ever Seen" Pulls a Reagan
What's new?
Biden pledged on the eve of the election to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen”. That’s one hell of a claim.
So did Biden keep this promise? I’ll give you a hint: no. But first, some context:
When it comes to certain industries vital to the national economy, the president (but really the legislature) have some power to stop workers from striking. And for a anti-labor president, this type of power comes in handy. Take for example the PATCO incident in 1981. In a far too simple summary, PATCO was the union for air traffic controllers. These air traffic controllers went on strike to leverage their negotiation power. President Reagan used his power, broke the strike, and fired all the workers, along with banning them from federal service for life. Of course, because of this brash action, staff levels didn’t normalize for a decade, but when you’re Ronald Reagan, breaking unions is just par for the course.
Currently, the major rail unions are at risk of striking after refusing to adopt a new contract. In almost every industry, unionized employees do this because it is their only real leverage against capital. Biden has gone on record previously supporting this right by encouraging passage of the PRO act. But, just like air traffic controllers, rail workers are at the whims of the government. To be clear and to provide some nuance, Biden can’t directly break this potential strike, but he has encouraged congress to force the unions to adopt the contract they are considering striking over. And, if rail workers still went on strike, that strike could be considered illegal, and the National Guard could be called in to break it. Pictured below is the National Guard breaking up a strike.
To anyone who doesn’t want to live in a totalitarian state where the government strips workers of their basic right to strike, the image above looks pretty bad. But to Biden and his cronies in congress, this is all perfectly reasonable.
They claim that a strike would shut down the economy. Yes! That’s the point. Maybe when workers are so important to the economy, we should treat them like it. And, if big business refuses to do that, they deserve the right to go on strike. For most every other industry, Biden supports that right. But now, at this pivotal moment for labor rights, he’s decided to be a hypocrite.
How has this gone so far that MARCO RUBIO IS RIGHT?
(I will concede that this ^ is spineless contrarianism, but still, come on people)
So is Biden “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen”? He might be more pro-union than Reagan, but, spoiler alert, that doesn’t take a lot.
Biden is showing his true colors. He’s a corporate democrat like the rest of them, and he needs to reverse his position on this for me to even start to believe otherwise.
I remember sitting enthralled at the TV on election night. I thought things were gonna change. They haven’t. I'll accept a 2 or 3 pretty good big bills, but that’s not what we need right now. We need a strong president who can stand up for labor and stand against megacorporations, even if that means making some tough political decisions. That’s my take.
If you appreciate my intense but casual “journalism” please think about subscribing to Take It Or Leave It.