In July, any observers were confused that Bernie Sanders and The Squad, a Democratic-Socialist contingent in Congress, were among those Democrats who were the last to leave the sinking ship erstwhile the ghost of president Biden's reelection dispelled after his disastrous performance in the presidential debate.
The explanation is simple: despite all Biden's flaws, his program has been the most populist in economical terms since the neoliberal turn in the 1970s. Biden's defence at the time reflected any doubts as to whether Kamala Harris would be equally a reliable class defender and organized labour movement.
Four years ago, I mocked erstwhile Biden promised to become the most pro-union, pro-worker president in history. And although he may not precisely claim the right to specified a name, Biden's accomplishments are impressive. His National labour Relations Board has been the most pro-unionist in at least half a century, and the number of employees claiming union representation has doubled. NLRB Biden besides facilitated the enforcement of contracts and the imposition of penalties for infringements by employers. Last year, the fiscal field offices of the council received 24578 applications in connection with the usage of unfair anti-work practices – that is the most in more than a decade. Meanwhile, Biden's massive investments in industrial policy and infrastructure have increased the request for workers in the union sectors.
In conclusion, Biden's administration effectively reduced barriers to trade union entry, strengthened the state's ability to enforce labour rights and increased the number of jobs covered by the union, through laws specified as Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. There is simply a good chance that Biden's results would look even better if Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema did not force Democrats to limit their ambitions. Does anyone remember Biden's statements about the anticipation of full employment?
Biden's pro-working policy was intended to strengthen Democrats, as trade unionists would reward them in elections. Instead, a working class drift to the right towards Make America large Again continues, especially among trade unionists active in activity bringing concrete prey. Many leading Democrats most likely consider the past of Biden's engagement in the planet of work a failure due to the fact that it has not yielded the desired political gains, meaning that Harris may be afraid to keep a akin position on specified matters.
There's no telling what Harris in the White home would mean to unions. The good news is that he promises to pass the PRO Act, which strengthens trade unions, and the Public Service Freedom to the negociate Act, which would warrant public sector workers freedom to make trade unions. But there are besides indications that he is addressing this issue in a akin way to Obama: vague promises for unions that reflect the engagement of Democrats in another interest groups, in contrast to those that would recognise the central function of workers. Harris sometimes publically praised trade unions, as erstwhile she told attendees of the Michigan labour Day rally that they “should thank unionists” – but talking is cheap.
The reason for scepticism is that Harris' chief advisor ("right hand", as he called it "Vanity Fair") is her brother-in-law, Tony West, a erstwhile authoritative in the Obama Justice Department. To work on the campaign, West took leave as Uber's chief legal advisor, who late sued the California Department of Labour for the 2020 Act requiring digital platforms to transport passengers to treat drivers as employees alternatively than independent contractors, which entitles them to benefits specified as overtime pay, paid sick leave and unemployment insurance.
There is besides a problem with Lina Khan. The Democrats' mega-donors, specified as Reid Hoffman and Mark Cuban, want this anti-monopoly crusade to go into oblivion, and erstwhile the Teamsters asked Harris whether he would keep Khan in the position of president of the national Trade Commission, the run head refused to respond. What Harris will decide, if elected, will be of large importance to which direction the winds of her administration are blowing.
There is simply a more fundamental problem: Democrats seemingly draw the incorrect conclusions from Biden’s mediocre results. alternatively of attributing it to a large degree that Biden's brain has turned into a bowl of ice cream and has been affected by the inability to present its achievements to the public efficiently, they interpret the anti-Biden sentiments as a referendum on bidenomics and presume that the scepticism of public opinion means that they should avoid ambitious economical reforms – hence focusing Harris on fine business with taxation breaks, loans to tiny businesses, etc.
Trump will be much worse on the issue of work if you believe his evidence scale of appointing union destroyers to NLRB and fresh stunts specified as jokes with Elon Musk about mass dismissal of employees. Recently, it seems that his vice-presidential candidate, more favorably for JD Vance's unionists, was driven out by Musk, sworn enemy of the labour movement and the regulatory and legal apparatus that protects the planet of work. 1 of his companies, SpaceX, filed a suit accusing NLRB of incompatibility with the constitution. If the richest man in the planet can influence economical policy to the degree he wishes, the results for American workers will be predictablely disastrous. Unfortunately, partially due to the fact that Democrats are professional "over-exaggerators", many union voters do not believe them erstwhile they point to the dangers of Trump's second term. Although Joe Biden is inactive the President-in-Office, he already feels like the man on whom the cross was laid. But given his good opinion on trade unions – and alternatives to these elections – it should not be put on him.
Ryan Zickgraf
Crowd. Magdalena Okraska
This text was originally published in Compact Magazine on 4 November 2024. photograph in text header: WikiImages from Pixabay.
