President Joe Biden vowed his administration would be the most pro-union in U.S. history. But in a labor stronghold that has become a symbol for blue-collar defections from the Democratic Party, workers say they don’t feel the wind at their backs from the White House.
Macomb County, Michigan, is home to an old guard of auto manufacturing tradesmen and a new generation of young organizers in the service and cannabis industries. Located just north of Detroit, it’s a place like many others where soaring inflation has eaten up wage gains and the pandemic forced some employees to shoulder novel on-the-job health risks without the safety net of paid sick days.
Biden’s failure to deliver on campaign promises such as a federal minimum wage hike makes his union cheerleading ring hollow for people like Alyssa Coakley, a 25-year-old Starbucks Corp. employee who led a successful effort to unionize her café in Macomb’s Clinton Township. “When it comes to labor, it’s been a little bit performative. Like, what more are you doing for us?” she said.
