Rep. Debbie Dingell warned President Joe Biden last September that he had a problem with labor. I am the most prolabor president Biden retorted according to three people with direct knowledge of the exchange. Dingell’s message was as much a warning about union support for the president as it was about broader crosscurrents of discontent and anxiety among some of the unions rankandfile with the companies they work for with a changing economy and with Washington. Ten months later Biden already enjoys hefty union. support for his reelection bid including earning the endorsement of the AFLCIO which represents. . million workers in unions and more than other unions. At least one major potential labor disruption was averted on Tuesday as the Teamsters reached a tentative agreement with UPS on a new contract to avert a strike by the unions UPS employees next week. Absent an agreement the United Auto Workers are threatening to go on strike in September and the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild are already striking. With one strike averted the White House still faces the potential for more disruption in the coming months as the Hollywood strikes continue and a UAW strike looms on the horizon as early as midSeptember. Biden must also balance his desire to avert strikes that could prove costly for the economy with living up to his claim as the most prounion president in history by standing by labor. The president believes that collective bargaining is the best way for workers and employers to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. The White House has also sought to defuse tensions with the UAW president Shawn Fain who took the helm in March pledging not to confront the union in a confrontational approach after pledging to more confrontational in March. But with the expiration of several major union contracts theCrosscurrents Dingell. warned about are coming to a head in ways that risk upending the hardfought economic progress for which Biden is only just beginning to loudly take credit. The spillover economic effects of multiple strikes converging at the same time could also be politically costly for Biden whose Bidenomics messaging increasingly ties his electoral fate to the health of the economy. But guess what Shes always right. White House officials had repeatedly expressed confidence that UPS and the Teamster who resumed negotiations on Tuesday would reach an agreement before their contract expires at the end of the month. The Biden administration was largely on the sidelines of the UPSTeamsters dispute as Teamsters President Sean OBrien specifically asked theWhite House not to get involved but top White House Officials kept in touch with both parties including through backchannels according to people familiar with the matter. Former Democratic Rep. Andy Levin who now serves as a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress said the presidents decision to intervene in the freight rail strike fed that perception that Biden will intervene to stop a nonrail strike in December reflected that critical role of freight rail and relied on the Railway Labor Act which could not be applied to any of the looming potential strikes. While Biden had a unique authority to intervening in that case.
‘Most pro-union president’ confronts labor woes. With one major strike averted
