Biden’s Unionism

The U.S. president’s push for the protection of workers’ rights starts with the nation itself.

Joe Biden’s strong support for labor unions and collective bargaining is something of a revolutionary step for workers’ rights in a country like the United States. Since Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945), no president has supported these rights so actively and with such representative measures in terms of their impact and the people he has entrusted with the task. It’s an authentic transformation of the American labor market. The decisive push toward unionism in a country historically resistant to it is a new hallmark of the Democratic president.

In the first week of this month, Biden issued an executive order making federal construction contracts greater than $35 million subject to labor agreements. They have also just received the findings of the committee of experts created last April, headed by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of Labor Martin Walsh, with the aim of strengthening the union movement in the country. The commission has no fewer than 13 members of government, in cooperation with federal agencies and major labor unions. The objective is for the state itself to set an example in its relations with workers.

Biden’s bet on unionism comes at a complex time in the U.S. labor market. In 2021, 5.3 million new jobs were created and unemployment rates fell to 3.9%. There are a significant number of jobs available, but under conditions that workers consider unacceptable. There are two obvious signs of labor unrest. On the one hand, protests against long hours, low wages, disincentives to retire and job insecurity are spreading. At the same time, millions of employees are leaving their jobs each month because they feel they aren’t being sufficiently compensated — whether that’s for pay, hours or professional or personal fulfillment — in a movement already known as the Great Resignation. This is happening in the context of low union membership; 10.3% in 2021, almost 4 million fewer members than four decades ago, when a downward trend began that is still going on today.

In the face of such a complex situation, the echo of Biden’s cry of “Pay them more!” less than a year ago can still be heard. The committee appointed by the president promotes 70 measures to encourage union membership and collective bargaining. Beyond profit and loss accounts and macroeconomic figures, workers in the United States have found in their own president the driving force behind a union culture that is almost always fragile and lacking in bargaining power.