WASHINGTON — A series of high-profile strikes across the country this month is testing how far President Joe Biden will go to bolster the labor movement, pitting the Democratic leader between his long-held affinity for unions and a jittery economic recovery that economists worry can ill-afford additional shocks.
Even as the White House takes steps to support the striking workers, some labor leaders are urging Biden to go further amid what they see as a rare moment of opportunity to strengthen their movement.
“The president understands in his bones that he supports labor, and he supports the rights of workers to fight for themselves,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “But he has to take it a step further and remind the public what this is really about.”
Since the beginning of October, thousands of workers across the country have gone on strike in industries ranging from food service and farm equipment to health care and education. The flurry of activity, which activists have named “Striketober,” comes as many industries scramble to hire more employees to fill open positions.
Biden has praised the strikes generally, saying in a brief comment last week that workers who feel compelled to demand higher wages should have the right to do so. It’s a natural position to take for the president, who regularly touts his support for labor unions and the important role he thinks they play in sustaining the middle class.
“I will note that the president and the vice president often say and -- that this is the most pro-union administration in history, and they will continue to govern and lead with that in mind,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier this month. “And they both feel that strongly supporting unions, the ability of workers to organize if they so choose, collective bargaining and the right to strike, which is one part of collective bargaining, are fundamental rights.”
The administration dispatched two Cabinet secretaries to visit picket lines: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who visited striking John Deere workers in Iowa last week, and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, who appeared this week with striking Kellogg workers in Pennsylvania. The visits were the type of public show of support labor officials said they rarely, if ever, received from former Democratic presidents in recent times.
But Psaki and other administration officials have declined to take a position on the individual strikes, saying doing so would violate longstanding norms. And more privately, White House officials point out that the number of large strikes this year -- those of more than 1,000 workers -- has risen from last year but still trails recent years such as 2018 and 2019.
“The data does not show any significant increase in strikes compared to previous years,” said one senior administration official.
There have been nine work stoppages of 1,000 or more workers so far this year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s one more than the eight that occurred last year, BLS reports, but still trails the 20 such strikes in 2018 and 25 in 2019.
White House officials also say they don’t think Biden’s support of unions has encouraged the strikes, arguing they happen not because of who occupies the White House but are instead driven by local conditions unique to each labor action.
Business leaders have urged the White House not to weigh in on the strikes, saying that fear of labor unrest could further disrupt already strained supply chains. The Biden administration has made fixing supply chain problems a top priority of the administration, working with businesses and ports to ease the congestion issues there that economists worry have contributed to a broader economic slowdown in recent months.
“Encouraging more labor shortages through widespread strikes is going to be pretty problematic at this point, since you’re working very hard to deal with supply-chain issues,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office who is now president of the conservative American Action Forum. “One man’s labor shortage is another man’s supply-chain blockage.”
Union activists say the number of strikes were lower this and last year because of the pandemic, which stymied organizing activity, and that the amount of labor activity in October is proof that the tide is once again shifting in their favor.
The movement would gain even more momentum if the president touted its efforts with his bully pulpit, union-friendly Democrats say, something they add they haven’t seen him do as visibly as they’d like.
“Biden has really met the moment on several things so far,” said J.D. Scholten, a former Democratic congressional candidate who this month marched in support of striking John Deere workers. “But they have potential to do something really significant if he comes out and supports these workers.”
Nelson said that Biden has a chance to educate the entire country about collective-bargaining rights. The administration doesn’t need to pick sides in the disputes between workers and businesses, she added, but it can call out companies that refuse to sit down and negotiate with their workforce.
“It’s not picking one strike or another,” Nelson said. “But that is coming down for collective bargaining.”
Other labor leaders have expressed more sympathy for the White House’s position, pointing out that they’ve been as vocally supportive as any administration in recent memory even while grappling with ongoing negotiations over Biden’s agenda that have taken up much of his time and attention.
“In a moment like this, you always want more to be done,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “But frankly, I don’t know another president who’s done this much for labor.”
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