“I wouldn’t be here without the IBEW,” Biden said, adding that manpower could also be key in the Georgia race. “It’s not hyperbole.”
A short drive away, dozens of protesters – angry at how Biden pushed Congress to intervene to stop a railroad union strike – carried signs that read: “Without the right to strike, workers will not have no union rights. They were organized by the Democratic Socialists of America.
After pushing Congress to end a costly labor strike at the height of the holiday season, the self-proclaimed ‘most pro-union president’ in US history now finds himself in the awkward position of having to consolidate his image as the biggest supporter of the labor movement.
The rail contract taking effect gives workers pay rises, more flexibility to take time off for doctor’s appointments and a paid personal day – but no paid sick leave, which rail workers fought. But some unions in the broader labor movement are concerned about how the deal has unfolded.
“Forcing people to work under terms they didn’t agree to is supposed to be unconstitutional – and it will lead to massive instability,” said Sara Nelson, president of the largest flight attendants’ union, which is facing strike restrictions similar to those of railway workers. “Congress could have chosen to respect the collective bargaining process and raise the issue with a railroad strike before even intervening.”
The railroad strike threatened high stakes for the White House. The rail trade group estimated the cost of a strike at $2 billion a day, putting travel, essential supplies and commerce at risk during the busy holiday season.
Senior administration officials said while they knew some union members were unhappy with the president’s decision to push for intervention in the strike, he made the call because of the impact devastating it would have had on American workers, including union members. The officials added that President Biden regularly visits union halls and other union events during the campaign trail.
“It’s not the president against workers or the president against a strike,” said Celeste Drake, Biden’s top labor adviser. “It was the president standing with all of America against shutting down the railroad. It was about keeping the rails running and making sure communities have clean drinking water, families see bread on the shelves when they go to the grocery store.The president will maintain his reputation as the most pro-union president ever and he has promised to guarantee paid leave for all American workers.
Meanwhile, Biden has scored other victories for unions, including putting a strong worker advocate at the helm of the National Labor Relations Board and passing legislation he says will create well-paying union jobs.
But the intervention of the White House has caused tensions in Biden’s relationship with the labor movement in a way that even Biden seems to recognize. Thursday night, outside the state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, when reporters asked if railroad workers deserved paid sick leave, Biden became visibly annoyed, saying, “I love you guys. I negotiated a contract that no one else could negotiate.
During the signing of the bill on Friday morning, Biden said enacting the agreement “was difficult for me” but necessary to avert a “catastrophe.” When asked how soon railroad workers should expect paid sick leave, he replied, “As soon as I can convince the Republicans to see the light.”
For his part, Biden noted that most railroad unions (eight of 12) accepted the contract. And other Democrats joined Biden in accusing congressional Republicans of opposing a measure to include seven paid sick days in the deal.
“Shut up or shut up,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on MSNBC Thursday night. “If you can’t vote for this, to give workers today – who have really hard jobs, dangerous jobs – if you can’t guarantee them paid sick leave, don’t tell anyone you support the working families.”
Yet many unionized railroad workers say they have felt betrayed by the president and Democratic lawmakers whom they see as kowtowing to the interests of powerful freight railroads, despite their professed allegiance to labor.
“I guess Biden is hoping we have short memories,” said Beau Trego, who worked as a bandleader for 17 years. “It shows that for him big business is more important than the fate of workers. That’s for sure.”
Outside the railroad industry, unionized workers have denounced what they say is Biden’s hypocrisy. Union baristas at Starbucks, many of them young liberals who have been in the spotlight of the US labor movement this year, said they were angry.
Close. Biden forcing railroad workers to accept a deal they rejected is a betrayal of the working class. Siding with the bosses in denying workers paid sick leave and preventing a strike is not good for workers. https://t.co/k9O1VLM9rM
— Starbucks Workers United (@SBWorkersUnited) November 29, 2022
Maggie Carter, 28, a barista at a unionized Starbucks in Knoxville, Tennessee, said Biden’s decision to tell Congress to impose the deal had already cast doubt among her unionized colleagues about Biden’s integrity.
“Honestly, I’m really angry,” Carter said. “We showed up in droves to vote for this president for a reason. It shows us that we haven’t won much. As a railroad worker, how can you vote for Biden after this?
Christian Smalls, the president of Amazon’s first union that formed earlier this year on Staten Island, met President Biden in the Oval Office in May after receiving a celebrated invitation from young union activists. But Smalls said he had been following railroad news closely and was also angered by the White House’s decision to intervene to avert a strike.
“It’s a disgrace to the working class that the administration — which claims to be the most pro-worker — doesn’t side with rank-and-file union members,” Smalls said. “It’s even more of a shame that the threat of a strike lasted more than seven sick days, which is breadcrumbs.”
Still, some union members have quietly acknowledged that the president faces a particularly difficult situation having to choose between economic calamity and unionized workers, according to two union leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity to share their internal sentiments. Some of the major rail unions faced very tough and close votes within their own membership when it came to approving the deal.
But AFL-CIO leader Liz Shuler said paid sick leave must remain at the center of policymakers’ agendas.
“While railroad workers won big pay raises and other major gains today, it is deeply disappointing that 43 senators have sided with multi-billion dollar railroad companies to block paid sick leave they desperately needed. need,” Shuler said. “The labor movement will continue to mobilize and push hard until every railroad worker – and every working American – has the paid sick leave they need and deserve.”
