Biden pushes a strong role for unions in tech jobs, even as potential strikes are on the horizon
President Joe Biden is courting unions as a cornerstone of the United States' economic future with a speech at a Philadelphia shipyard
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is courting unions as a cornerstone of the country's economic future with a speech at a Philadelphia shipyard on Thursday — just as some major unions are weighing strikes that could disrupt the growth he wants to campaign on in 2024.
Tensions are rising between unions and companies about a rapidly evolving economy in which artificial intelligence, clean energy and e-commerce are rewriting some of the basic rules of work. Biden is trying to allay those concerns by saying unions should be part of that future. But the Democratic president also knows from past experience that a strike could harm his reelection chances.
Biden has long called on businesses to hire unionized workers, saying that the premium paid will lead to higher quality work. But companies seem reluctant to meet unions' terms in separate contract talks with script writers, actors, autoworkers and UPS employees. In a speech last month about his economic vision, Biden recalled telling a group of CEOs that they would be better off partnering with unions.
“They said, ‘Why am I so pro-union?’” the president recounted. “And I said, ‘Because it helps you.’ It really does. Think about it. The total cost of a major project goes down when you have the best workers in the world doing it. Not a joke. It's true.”
In Philadelphia on Thursday, Biden will drill down on this point at a steel-cutting ceremony for the Acadia, a vessel needed to build offshore wind farms that his administration says could support hundreds of new union jobs.
Despite Biden's optimism, business and labor are at a
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