President Joe Biden often appears to struggle with the English language, providing a never-ending supply of fodder for his many critics.
But a two-minute video recently posted on Twitter does far more than highlight Biden’s linguistic struggles or offer further empty promises. In it, the president veers accidentally into a candid topic which will worry his friends in the country’s government employee unions.
Workers in Alabama – and all across America – are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice – one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers.
Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union. pic.twitter.com/2lzbyyii1g
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 1, 2021
Referring to Amazon employees in Alabama under pressure to unionize, the self-described “best friend labor has ever had in the White House” fulminated, “Let me be really clear: It’s not up to me to decide whether anyone should join a union. But let me be even more clear: It’s not up to an employer to decide that, either. The choice to join a union is up to the workers — full stop; full stop.”
While he is correct, the problem is not Biden’s words, but his intent and his actions.
In this case, the president is all for workers having a right to choose for themselves whether to unionize. As long as they decide in the affirmative, that is.
For example, prior to the election, Joe Biden had no use whatsoever for right-to-work laws. You know, the ones that safeguard the rights of workers to join a union — or not.
Likewise, Biden openly disagreed with a 2018 Supreme Court decision, Janus v. AFSCME, that finally affirmed the right of state and local government employees to not pay a union as a condition of employment.
Then, he promised to invalidate the decision by executive order, if need be, in order to force every public-sector employee back into union entrapment.
Big Labor and Big Tech — both bastions of left-wing progressivism — come down on opposite sides of Biden’s blunder.
Big Labor, which has been steadily losing members in the private sector for decades, would like for everyone to be forced into a labor union and therefore required to pay dues that fund their lavish lifestyles and radical agenda.
Big Tech — in particular, Amazon — has been fighting off unionization amongst its employees because, although “liberal” is a delicate way to describe Silicon Valley, they understand that unionization kills productivity, innovation and the flexibility to reward their best and brightest employees.
Big Labor claims to be for the little guy, and that without them, American capitalism would bring back seven-day work weeks, child labor and dangerous sweatshops.
Big Tech knows better and realizes the only legitimate remaining function for unions is negotiating wages and benefits — increasing personnel costs that often cut deeply into a company’s bottom line and inflate costs to consumers.
Perhaps that’s why, if not for public-sector unions, the Labor Movement might have burned out long ago.
When given the opportunity to negotiate for their own workplace preferences and ability to keep more of their own money in their paycheck, many private-sector companies and employees walked away from Big Labor.
Amazon is fighting off unionization everywhere it can because private-sector unions are simply an expensive middleman.
Big Labor knows this all too well, which is why they can’t allow companies like Amazon and employees everywhere the opportunity to choose for themselves whether to engage in unionization.
The majority would undoubtedly say, “No thanks.”
The Labor Movement remains powerful because of public-sector unions and the millions of government employees who pay into their campaign war chests — and government never shrinks itself, so there’s a constant supply of taxpayer money to hire new union members.
Just the way the labor dons want it.
That’s why candidate Biden promised to grow both public and private sector unions. And the Democrats in Congress already have legislation aimed at forcing both the private and public sector deeper into union clutches.
Come to think of it, Big Tech is more likely to have buyer’s remorse on this issue.
Union bosses probably aren’t scratching their heads. They knew what they were buying.
Aaron Withe is national director of the Freedom Foundation, a multi-state public policy organization specializing in the abuses of government employee unions.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.