Unsurprisingly, unions played a role in the victory of President of Joe Biden. In addition to receiving many union endorsements, union households voted over 60% in the swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan. Likewise, it was revealed by a Time article that union collaboration with big business played a part in making sure their members supported Biden’s election. In spite of this, some of Biden's first actions as president eliminated union jobs.
In the first week of his Presidency, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline which destroyed 11,000 jobs, 8,000 of which would have gone to union workers. This unsurprisingly got condemnation from unions such as LUINA, the Pipe Fitters, and the AFL-CIO. Of course, Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg assured green jobs (that do not yet and may not exist) will replace those jobs, but since large portions of green tech are made in China, this could likely increase jobs instead for non-unionized foreign labor than American unions.
This is hardly the only evidence though that the Biden administration might be turning on unions. Plenty of his current policy positions have come out against union interests. Further evidence suggests the Democratic Party may no longer be interested in union support.
Other Biden policies include increased support for trade deals that will send jobs overseas such as the TPP and the promise to destroy the oil and gas industry (while telling those displaced to learn to code). Meanwhile, though he has promised to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, that remains stalled in the senate. It seems unlikely he will carry much for unions with his future policies.
This is likely a sign that union power in the Democratic party is waning. After all, union membership has decreased 10% in the last 40 years so that may be heralding a reduction in interest for them from workers. If unions do not carry as much power over labor, the Democratic party may be looking for other forms of support.
Still, it’s no surprise as most of his financial support came from Wall Street which may suggest Biden’s more interested in them. After all, he received $74 million in Wall Street donations. Also, Biden has been hiring people from tech companies who usually oppose unionization. With increased Democratic support coming from cities, it’s likely that their policy may reflect coastal elites more than working class Main Street.
This then brings up the question: would unions be winnable for Republicans? After all, the Dems are becoming increasingly hostile towards traditionally unionized fields like the energy industry and manufacturing as they increasingly become the party of the wealthy. This may mean labor may be leaving the party of the donkey.
However, there are many issues stopping the Republican Party from benefiting from labor support. First of all, union leadership continues to benefit from Dem leadership. While laborers may lose jobs, national leadership may not be concerned if the Dems keeping benefiting them specifically.
This may actually mean a coming reckoning between labor and union leadership. After all, some unions were reporting majority Trump support despite leadership opposition. It should come as no surprise then that a majority of union members support voluntary dues laws like right-to-work as they don’t want funds to go to leadership that does not support them. So this may be a bad sign for union bosses.
All the same, a second issue may be Republican opposition in the past. After all, many have taken stances unions have disliked in the past, such as Nikki Haley intervening in the Boeing labor dispute when she was governor or South Carolina. So some may be untrusting of the party.
Still, with dwindling numbers, changes in party structure, and a transitioning economy, union members may feel a need to start adapting to the times. Those members still have families to feed, work to do, and long term threats to those things. A change in political direction could be in the wind.
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