Labor Historian Eric Loomis was asked to give a letter grade to Joe Biden’s administration on labor policy. Biden makes the honor roll:
Joe Biden has pledged repeatedly to go further than any of his predecessors with his support for U.S. labor rights.
“I intend to be the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden said at a White House meeting in September 2021 that brought together ordinary workers, labor leaders and government officials.
He has expressed this intention many times, sometimes clarifying his goals.
For example, in 2023 he said in Chicago that his administration was “making it easier to empower workers by making it easier to join a union.”
Based on my research regarding the history of organized labor in America, I would give Biden an A-minus for his record on workers rights. In my view, the man dubbed “Union Joe” has lived up to the claim, with one notable error.
He says it’s the same grade he would give to FDR.
He goes on to lay out all the positive things Biden has done for labor and raises the one case (the railroad union’s sick leave demands — which they later mostly got) as the single bad policy. It’s quite astonishing and I honestly didn’t realize most of it. He also analyzes the context in which he’s operating with the congress and the courts and it’s actually even more astonishing. Great read.
FYI Loomis also says this, which is interesting:
