Joe shakes up the Department of Labor

As a union activist and leader for four decades I have lost count of how many times I have been asked; ‘why doesn’t the union support republicans?’.  The short answer is that we have.  Admittedly, not often, but throughout the years but we have supported some republicans. 

According to the International UAW’s CAP Department’s internal polling of the 2016 election 32% of UAW members did not vote for Hillary Clinton, the UAW endorsed candidate.  An additional 8% voted in the 2016 election but did not vote for a candidate for president.  The AFL-CIO has reported similar numbers within their ranks.  I have also been told over and over that “there is no difference between the democrats and republicans”, that the democratic party does not care about workers.  There may be a small amount of truth to those statements. 

If you want a clearer picture on who supports working families and who doesn’t?  Look at who has been fired or removed from the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  In less than two weeks President Biden has taken the Department of Labor away from Trump’s union busting corporate lackeys and filled the positions with men and women from labor.  It seems that maybe…just maybe all these years union members have been asking the wrong question?  It’s not why doesn’t the union support republicans, it’s why don’t republicans support working families.  

Reporter Mark Joseph Stern writes in Slate Magazine: “On Tuesday, Joe Biden demanded the resignations of all 10 of Donald Trump’s appointees to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, a powerful labor relations board, in a major victory for federal unions. Eight members resigned, and two were fired after refusing to step down. Trump’s appointees—a group of partisan anti-labor activists—had hobbled federal unions for years, sabotaging their ability to organize and bargain collectively. Biden’s clean sweep, which was first reported by Government Executive’s Erich Wagner, marks a crucial step toward ending his predecessor’s campaign of federal union busting.”