“Strong unions built the great American middle class. Everything that defines what it means to live a good life and know you can take care of your family…is because of workers who organized unions and fought for worker protections.” 

These words open up the page “Empowering Workers” on Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign website. Biden ran a campaign that tied itself closely to organized labor and touted himself as one of the most pro-labor presidents in American history. However, within the last week, Biden has torpedoed a lot of that goodwill as he has spearheaded a congressional effort to bust the impending rail worker’s strike.

For several months now, rail workers and rail unions all across the country have been trying to negotiate with their respective companies. Several deals have been accepted; however, most also have been rejected, making the probability of a national strike near certain. 

The main point of contention for the workers is the lack of guaranteed sick days in any of the aforementioned deals. The reason for this dates back to 2015 when then-President Barack Obama signed an executive order guaranteeing seven days of paid sick leave for all federal workers and federal contractors… except rail workers, which had a specific clause excluding them from the order.

The threat of a nationwide strike inspired much anxiety because of what it could mean for the already weakened US economy, particularly a disruption in the supply chain right before Christmas. This mass fear led to some calling for Biden and the federal government to intervene.

Intervene he did. On Nov. 28, Biden took to Twitter and called on Congress to pass the tentative agreement (the most consensus deal that has been offered). Essentially, he was invoking the Railroad Labor Act of 1925, which maintains that the federal government can regulate railroad union negotiations.

This move drew pushback immediately. Democrats, like Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, pushed back on Biden’s move. Rail Workers United, an inter-union caucus encompassing a vast majority of rail workers, released a statement saying “the ‘most labor-friendly president’ has opted to side with Big Business and call for a thwarting of railroad workers’ right to strike.” Additionally, more than 500 different labor historians signed a letter condemning Congress’ plan.

Nevertheless, the agreement was sent to Congress. Two bills were presented in the House: one averting a strike and the other guaranteeing sick days, proposed by New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman. Both bills passed the House; however, once they arrived in the Senate, the tentative agreement was passed by an 80-15 margin. Meanwhile, the sick days’ bill failed, 52-43, with 42 Republicans and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voting it down. Interestingly enough, several Republicans did in fact vote in favor of the sick days’ bill, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.

After Congress voted, the White House released a statement essentially taking a victory lap. Biden touted the benefits rail workers would be receiving in the tentative agreement including a 24% raise, caps on health care costs and, in lieu of actual sick days, one “personal day”.

In spite of this, I am of the opinion that this is a startling betrayal of organized labor from the White House. Biden essentially kneecapped the rail worker’s bargaining power by stepping in and violating their ratification process using an archaic law. The only people who should have a say in approving contracts are the workers who seek to benefit from them, not Congress and certainly not the President. 

What Biden should have done is use his platform to pressure the rail companies rather than crush the workers. The bully pulpit exists for a reason. Biden could have used his power to push rail companies towards agreeing to a sufficient deal, especially one that provides an appropriate amount of paid sick days (“one personal day,” what a joke.). By pressuring the oligarchs, Biden could have placed the blame on the companies in the public eye, making them, from a PR perspective, the “villains” of the situation. Instead, by crushing the strike, he unintentionally shifted the blame onto the workers, positioning any further action by the unions as the antagonistic whining of petulant children.

This extends to the Democratic Party as a whole as well. Congress knew that sick leave would never pass on its own (granted this is because of Republicans) and they knew a combined bill would also never pass. So, by splitting them into two, separate pieces of legislation, they not only crushed the strike but also sat back and said they did everything they could while leaving rail workers out to dry. It also represents the sheer lack of long-term strategy on the Democrat’s part as the failure of a joint bill leading to a strike would place the blame squarely on congressional Republicans, essentially kicking them while they’re already down and possibly leg-sweeping the incoming House majority.

Democrats’ labor failures don’t end there. The bill to give these workers sick leave failed by a vote of 52-43. I will admit that math is not necessarily my strong suit, but I am pretty sure that 52 out of 100 is, in fact, a majority. Thanks to the Democrats catering to the delicate sensibilities of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, an antiquated legislative procedure killed a strike while denying workers the benefit of paid leave. That’s not even getting into Manchin voting against paid leave, continuing his tradition of pandering to the right to salvage a Senate seat that is dead on arrival in 2024. I find it incredibly funny how 100 people earning six figures (at minimum) a year and unlimited sick days have the gall to say to workers “we wanted to give you sick days, really, but, y’know, what are you gonna do? Now get back to work.”

It gets even better when one remembers that universal sick leave was originally included in Biden’s flagstaff Build Back Better bill but was axed due to pushback from Manchin (sensing a pattern here?). Democrats’ absolute faceplant on unionized labor this past week plays into some other shortcomings of Biden’s administration, namely the lack of funding for the National Labor Relations Board and the abandoning of the PRO Act.

Now, though I am going after the Democrats a lot here as they are the party in power, the Republican Party is far, far from innocent. A supermajority of Republicans in both the House and Senate voted to crush the strike while simultaneously voting to deny workers sick days. Republican politicians are awful. In other news, grass is green. The congressional GOP is terrible but, if there is one thing they aren’t right now, it is hypocritical (I mean, they are in general, just not in this specific situation). They hate labor unions, so they voted against them. They didn’t weave a tale of solidarity with workers before shanking them when their backs were turned. The fact of the matter is, a Democratic president announced he would be busting a strike and the GOP voted with him.

For some online liberals and assorted left-leaning media, responses have been mixed. Some have responded as I have above, outraged that Dems would turn on one of their key constituencies. Others, however, performed these Herculian leaps in logic to explain why strike busting isn’t that bad when a Democrat does it. Freelance journalist Magdi Jacobs, for example, argued that eight of the 12 major unions voted for the original agreement with only four voting it down. That does, in fact, sound like a valid point, no? However, as she herself points out later, those four unions represent a higher percentage of rail workers than the other eight combined, an argument she quickly tries to dismiss with some word salad rationale. 

Additionally, some have taken to utilizing “woke” language to say that all rail workers members are white working-class men who are inconsequential to Democrats’ electoral chances. Though a vast majority of workers are men and are majority white, nearly 31% are people of color.

Lastly, some decided to get real cutesy with it, pointing out “well technically, the strike hasn’t happened yet, so technically Biden didn’t strike bust!” Pardon me, for a moment, as I tear out some of my hair and scream into a pillow. This is textbook distinction without a difference. If you’re arguing semantics, you’re losing.

Regardless of the reasoning for the vote, rail workers and the unions were not happy with Congress and President Biden. The RWU released another statement decrying congressional intervention, proclaiming “we suffered a one-two punch at the hands of, at first, the Democratic Party; the second served up by the Republicans.”