Lost in the recent deluge of election coverage is meaningful coverage of one of the Biden administration’s remarkable achievements.
Less than a year ago, the president made history by joining the United Auto Workers (UAW) picket line to demand that General Motors raise wages for the nation’s blue-collar workers. Declared “We know the president will do the right thing for the working class,” he said at the time.
When the UAW won, anyone paying attention could see the contours of the old progressive coalition emerging from the political fog: Democrats, organized labor, and working-class voters all rowing in the same direction.
As someone who worked for Mr. Union, former Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-Missouri), I know that maintaining that coalition won’t be easy. For long stretches of American history, the Republican Party was aligned with corporate executives in fashionable suits and could never seriously claim to be the party of the working class.
But things have changed recently. Why? Part of the reason is the cultural appeal of MAGA and the presence of figures like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri).steeringThe Republican Party is moving away from the old “corporate boardroom” appeal.
But a big reason is that some union leaders are determined to undermine their alliance with the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, too many in the party seem unaware of that reality and, more importantly, the impact it has on working Americans.
Take the Teamsters, for example: Unlike UAW’s Sean Fain, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump, but not in a quiet way: O’Brien has explicitly asked to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
It’s not up to me to tell O’Brien what to do. Maybe the promise of a ride on Air Force One is worth the disaster a second Trump presidency would wreak on working-class interests. He might cheer when Trump cuts taxes on the wealthy and induces tariff-induced inflation. He might chuckle when working-class families are kicked off Medicaid and Obamacare and everything sold at Walmart and Target goes up in price almost overnight.
I can’t fully explain his thinking, but I can certainly wonder why my fellow Democrats in Congress are following his orders. And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening. O’Brien doesn’t just talk. Funding Trump madness.
To some Democrats, the nuance here may seem entirely academic and unworthy of attention—in their mind, a union is a union is a union—but in reality, from a purely policy-oriented standpoint, the distinction makes all the difference in the world.
It makes little political sense for Democrats to push for someone like O’Brien — not because unionization is wrong, but because, unlike the United Auto Workers, the Teamsters seek to undermine the goals of unionism.
To enact policies that are truly pro-union and pro-worker — to restore unions to the sacred role they once played in protecting working-class Americans from losing their chance at the American Dream — people like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) need to distinguish between true allies and progressive pretenders. Already Given All O’Brien Airtime They could.
There are plenty of great, solid labor leaders these senators could support who aren’t trying to destroy American jobs or the American way of doing things.
This isn’t the first time Democrats have had to endure a moment of strange alliances. For years, many of the nation’s leading abortion rights groups have done everything in their power to support pro-abortion rights Republicans, believing it was in their interest to move beyond party lines politically.
What they underestimated was that pro-abortion Republicans, if elected, would almost invariably vote for anti-abortion Speakers and Senate Majority Leaders. The instant gratification of getting a pro-abortion Republican elected elevated the status of their political opponents, to the detriment of these groups’ own mission.
andDobbs,We saw how that strategy turned out.
Today, Democrats face a similar dilemma as they try to defend working-class policies. Some unions want to work with us. Their success is our success, and our wins are their gains. They are true allies. But that is not universal among the wide variety of unions.
Sean O’Brien may be trying to come across as a champion for blue-collar workers, but his politics only hurt blue-collar interests. Democrats should stand with unions, as Biden did with the UAW, but in doing so they need to be confident that unions will stand with the working class.
Building a movement requires everyone to be a team player. In order to pursue working-class policies, Democrats need to withhold support from people who can help them build a sustainable majority.
Lindsay Mark Lewis is executive director and board member of the Progressive Policy Institute.
