This Labor Day, it is important to be reminded of just some actions the most pro-worker and pro-union administration in history has taken to support the creation of well-paying jobs and improve worker conditions because it seems the so called “working class” have no clue.
They take for granted the gains made – with great effort – by the Biden-Harris without considering how fortunes would reverse under anti-worker Trump, if Trump retakes the White House.
Too many take for granted the health and safety protections for workers implemented by the Biden-Harris administration who are forced to work under extreme heat conditions, or the right of pregnant women to have their workload and schedules adjusted to accommodate, or how this administration has stood up for the workers’ right to organize.
They forget how workers were forced by the Trump administration to go back into factories where the deadly coronavirus was incubating without requiring employers to provide any safety precautions, or face losing unemployment or disability benefits.
Biden has proved himself to be the most pro-labor, pro-union president in history, not only standing up for unions’ right to organize and protect pensions but also becoming the first sitting president to walk a picket line, leading to historic contracts with the Big 3 auto manufacturers.
Under Biden’s obsession to grow the economy “from the bottom up and the middle out” (in contrast with “trickle-down” economics), 15 million new jobs have been created – far exceeding the numbers lost during COVID (Trump is the first president since Hoover to actually lose jobs). Job creation – including 800,000 manufacturing jobs and 900,000 construction jobs – was not by accident, but the result of investing billions of dollars in new factories and 60,000 projects rebuilding roads, bridges, airports, ports through the landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Wages are up, actually exceeding inflation, so Americans are actually making real gains, especially when you factor in Biden’s mammoth efforts to make big things affordable for families – like prescription drugs and health care, reducing student debt, and going after junk fees and price-gouging.
They persist even as Republicans work to block each initiative because their vision of America is not one of economic justice and equal opportunity, but the rich overlording the working poor and middle class.
The Biden-Harris Administration has been focused on building a workforce and an economy to meet the challenges of the 21st century and position America to lead the world in innovation, spending $730 million on apprenticeships and training programs. The brilliantly won Inflation Reduction Act, with historic investment in clean energy and climate action, is creating 335,000 clean energy jobs.
The CHIPS and Science Act is bringing semiconductor manufacturing back to America, no longer hostage to supply chain interruptions that triggered the inflation spike during COVID. These efforts, coupled with Biden’s “Made in America” mandate, have resulted in $900 billion in private-sector commitments to invest in manufacturing and clean energy.
Biden strengthened Davis-Bacon requirements to guarantee that prevailing wages are what they deserve and enacted the Butch Lewis Act — the most significant law for union retirement security in 50 years — that has protected the pensions of one million union workers.
Biden Administration issued a rule that expands overtime protections to millions of workers, and the Administration is working to crack down on non-compete agreements, which deny the freedom of 30 million Americans from taking new, higher-paying jobs. (Republicans managed to get a judge to overturn that rule as well, because they see corporations as “people” and workers as serfs.)
The administration is proposing the first-ever federal safety standard for excessive heat in the workplace, and a rule limiting workers’ exposure to toxic materials.
Vice President Kamala Harris, an integral partner in the most pro-union administration in history, will continue these policies as president. She supported the PRO Act, cast the deciding vote on legislation that is saving hundreds of thousands of union workers’ pensions, joined union members on the picket line (for this, Trump has settled on “Comrade Kamala” as his mocking nickname).
It is most telling that she chose as vice president Tim Walz, a former member of the teachers union, who, as governor of Minnesota, passed the most pro-worker package of laws in Minnesota’s history — making it easier to form unions, strengthening worker protections, cracking down on union-busting, and giving workers paid leave.
Donald Trump, who pointedly held no events on Labor Day (and regularly stiffs paying workers and contractors), was one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in history, going against striking workers, advocating policies that continued to ship jobs overseas, while implementing a tax policy that gave a windfall to the uber-wealthy and big corporations at the expense of the middle class. (His cap on deductions for state and local taxes put the prospect of owning a home out of reach for so many.)
He loaded up the National Labor Relations Board with anti-worker corporatists and OSHA had little interest in actually protecting the health and safety of workers.
A second Trump presidency would be even worse: his Project 2025 agenda, created for him by close aides, would allow employers to stop paying many workers overtime (re-characterizing a 40 hour-workweek as a 160 hour month) and roll back labor and workplace protections.
The tariffs he promises to impose would effectively raise taxes on typical working families by $3900 a year, while his tax policy would kill 3 million jobs and add $6 trillion to the national debt.
To further show his contempt for working Americans, he praised Elon Musk as “the greatest cutter” – for firing striking workers – which prompted a UAW lawsuit (he rallied at a non-union plant during the UAW strike when Biden walked the picket line).
Trump even opposes raising the minimum wage, which has stagnated at a ridiculous $7.25 since 2009, even as the wealth of the richest billionaires increased by billions since 2012 Elon Musk, $2 to $214 billion; Jeff Bezos, $18.4 to $167.2 billion; mark Zuckerberg, $17.5 billion to $116.6 billion.
You can bet Trump won’t stand up for workers ability to organize or strike, be safe on the job, or promote living wage.
Meanwhile, Biden put an exclamation point on his respect for federal workers by signing an order increasing base pay by an average of 2%, stating, “We must attract, recruit, and retain a skilled workforce with fair compensation in order to keep our Government running, deliver services, and meet our nation’s challenges today and tomorrow.
This alternative pay plan decision will continue to allow the Federal Government to employ a well‑qualified Federal workforce on behalf of the American people, acknowledging wage growth in the labor market and fiscal constraints.”
In contrast, Trump is vowing to fire tens of thousands of federal workers – career professionals, experts, and staff – on Day 1, and replace them with those whose entire qualification depends on their loyalty to him, rather than the nation or Constitution or even expertise.
