Let me quote some excerpts from this article and demonstrate the shortsighted mind that constructed this heartfelt piece of duplicitous journalism.
This is no reflection on the Guardian itself which does a reasonably honest job of reporting the news.
In this case the report is an emotional rather than a legal pleading and asks for solutions that cannot be delivered by the president unilaterally without action by congress.
To wit:
People will point out that strikes are disruptive. Yes. That’s the point. A rail strike would be so disruptive that the rail companies probably would have given up the sick days to prevent it – and if they didn’t, the White House could have weighed in on the side of the workers to make them.
This is scenario of RR capitulation is based on pure conjecture. And the WH could not have weighed in on the side of the workers. The best Biden could have done was to bring the issue to congress to make a new law, that might have taken weeks to formulate, while bringing the nation to the point of total financial collapse.
An executive order dictating the RR to accede to the workers’ demands would have been an act of dictatorship and unconstitutional.
Instead, it did the opposite, and rescuing hope for those workers fell to Bernie Sanders and to progressives in the House, who forced congressional leaders to move a separate bill to guarantee the sick leave they were asking for. As usual, it was the left that went to the trouble of fighting for labor after the party’s mainstream sold it out for the sake of convenience.
And how was Biden instrumental in resolving this Congressional issue? Let me remind you that a president is president of ALL the people without prejudice.
Organized labor is in an abusive relationship with the Democratic party. For decades, Democratic administrations have failed to prioritize labor issues and stabbed unions in the back, and the union establishment has always showed up with a big check for them in the next election.
Oh, and Republican administrations have always prioritized labor issues!!!
I think this is an exaggerated statement that has no merit… It seems to me that all the Democratic administrations have always prioritized the middle class (labor force) with all kinds of social assistance programs.
It is true that whereas Republican administrations always started with tax-cuts that favored Big Business and their prosperous owners, Democratic administrations maintained a status quo with BB.
However, Biden has reversed this negligence by establishing a tax increase on the very wealthy to achieve a form of equality in tax obligation on all income recipients.
I guarantee you that this will happen again after this betrayal by Joe Biden. (You may have already noticed that few union leaders have been brave enough to criticize the White House directly on this issue.)
Due to time restraints in a fragile economy, Biden had no choice but to resolve the issue in the only way he could by ordering the acceptance of a previously agreed upon settlement by the majority of unions, but opposed by 4 of the 12 unions.
Four of the 12 railroad unions representing a majority of the railroad workforce have rejected a tentative new union contract agreement which fails to address their concerns. If any of the 12 unions go on strike, each union has agreed to honor the picket line.
“Joe Biden blew it,” said Hugh Sawyer, treasurer of Railroad Workers United, a group representing workers from a variety of rail unions and carriers. “He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations.”
Under the Railway Labor Act, workers’ right to legally strike is limited in transportation services. The last railroad strike in the US occurred in 1992 for two days before Congress intervened.
And how would Biden be involved in the Congressional deliberations?
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said Congress would take up legislation on Wednesday to stop a nationwide strike that would honor the original labor union agreement brokered by the Biden administration in September to avoid industrial action ahead of the midterm elections.
So where did Biden fail in his responsibility not only to the unions but to the entire nation that depends on the prompt delivery of goods in an already compromised infrastructure, which also requires the urgent need to be addressed as well as provide thousands of good paying wages and stimulus to the nation’s economy?
He is no miracle man or dictator who can ignore constitutional laws that are in force, lest his administration will be tied up in court for an indefinite time, while the nation’s economy collapses on all fronts.
Remember that “free enterprise” (capitalism) is at the heart of the issue.
Personally, I am against unrestricted capitalism, but that does not mean the president can just assume the “authority” to act unilaterally for or against a select class of the population.
It is so easy to level criticisms, but they are seldom accompanied by potential solutions.