Workers dispute Joe Biden’s claim that he is the president who is most pro-union in history

Why Biden isn’t the US Railway Union’s (RWU) choice for president, according to a RWU representative

Following the results of the 2024 presidential election in November, US President Joe Biden declared his candidacy for reelection last Tuesday in an effort to secure a second term.

Just a few days prior, a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs found that only 26% of Americans and 47% of Democrats wanted to see him run again. This carefully timed announcement followed that finding.

Despite his claims to be the “most pro-union president in American history,” Biden remains unpopular among the nation’s laborers. This is due to what he told wealthy fundraisers during the early stages of his 2020 campaign: “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.” When it comes to addressing the issue of climate change, advancing workers’ rights, or putting an end to America’s endless wars, his record as president demonstrates that not much has actually changed.

I chatted with Matthew A. Weaver, the railway union’s (RWU) legislative director, on May 1st, International Workers Day. In an open interview, Weaver the Griever—as he is known to his fellow laborers—explained the situation of the railway workers on whom Biden imposed a dubious settlement in order to avert a nationwide walkout in December. That agreement does not address any of the issues raised by the workers, including their urgent need for paid sick time, their constant availability due to mandatory overtime, and their inability to attend doctor’s appointments or care for their children as a result. Rail workers suffered a significant setback when the bill that was passed in December effectively barred the impending strike.

Weaver made the demand to restrict one-man train crews, which is obviously harmful in some situations. While he acknowledged that, to be fair, two-man crews are still the norm for cross-country trains, national regulators have refused to outlaw one-man crews, leaving it up to individual states and businesses to make the decision. “The contracts, the… recommendations being imposed on us were very frustrating generally, and I can’t imagine us being able to strike for 12 hours, 24 hours at the most,” he said. “However, it came out in the STB (Surface Transportation Board) hearings that the shippers were telling the STB that they need more people.”

He claimed that shippers pleaded with Congress at the last minute to “impose the contract because they said we would wreck the economy of America.” The influence of money over people in the American economy, he remarked, is “very frustrating.” He continued by saying that although some train workers did receive paid sick leave, it was on a carrier-by-carrier basis rather than a federal requirement, which was what rail workers intended to strike for.

Weaver discussed the East Palestine, Ohio train crash, the ensuing fire, and the spillage of hazardous materials. He claimed that his fellow union workers were present at the scene and were in charge of collecting the wreckage. It’s quite irritating, he stated, that “our members were not provided with all the protective gear they should have been and were not informed of all the chemicals in there.”

“In the train industry in America, it looks like profit comes before people. The public or the rail labor are not considered at all; it’s all about the profit margins, dividends, and shareholders. He continued by saying he didn’t comprehend why the chemicals in the railway carriages had to be burned off as opposed to being removed.

Before our interview, Weaver informed me that he had lodged more than 2,000 grievances against businesses for labor laws violations. He asserts that the vast majority of these involve breaches of contracts when businesses use independent contractors rather than relying on union workforce, which makes up roughly 80–90% of employees in the rail sector. He has, however, also expressed concerns about safety, claiming that Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg “dropped the ball” on East Palestine. He asserted that hazardous tankers pass through “small-town America and places where the working class live” rather than “rich people’s backyards.”

In terms of politics, he claimed the Democrats are squandering their “had” relationship with labor, and he feels that most of the time, he and his coworkers choose “the lesser of two evils” instead of voting for a strong labor candidate. “I’d say at least two-thirds of rail labor voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and I think more than half, probably 60%, did in 2020,” he projected. According to Weaver, many working-class voters chose Trump because they thought he represented change rather than more of the same and wanted to shake things up.

We appear to be making more efforts to maintain the status quo while CEOs and stockholders continue to prosper. In America, there is a huge wealth divide right now, he said. Weaver declared that although he would personally choose Biden over Trump, he would not enjoy it and is fed up with politics. He is, however, optimistic that newer generations, and Gen Z in particular, will carry the torch. The lowest rate of worker unionization on record occurred in 2022, but organizing is still going strong, and organizations like the Teamsters are recruiting hundreds of thousands of members, he added.