WASHINGTON — Joe Biden likes to say he's the most pro-union president in U.S. history. When he announces his expected reelection campaign in the coming weeks, he'll get the chance to prove it to his own staffers.
Workers on his 2024 campaign will be unionized, political allies say, making him the first president to run a reelection campaign with staff represented by a union.
That means hammering out a collectively bargained agreement that could establish salary minimums, set work hours and offer overtime pay, among other things, easing the demands on a workforce that has historically been required to put in long hours for meager pay.
President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex Dec. 8 in Washington.
The move allows Biden to further demonstrate to his base just how deep his pro-labor convictions are, providing a strong contrast with his Republican opponents, whose staffers aren't likely to embrace unionizing.
People are also reading…
It also means extra work for those at the top of Biden's campaign to negotiate a contract and could present financial and workforce constraints, but union organizers and Democratic operatives insist that having a unionized staff would only make Biden's 2024 bid stronger.
"The marquee name, the person who's running, wants the cred for being union," said Janice Fine, a Rutgers University professor of labor studies and employment relations and director of the workplace justice lab@RU. "But the people who are running the campaign are going to have more trepidation because they know what it takes to actually lift up a campaign."
Union members hold signs before President Joe Biden speaks to union members Feb. 15 at the IBEW Local Union 26 in Lanham, Md.
It's not unprecedented for a presidential campaign to be unionized, though Biden's would be the largest unionized workforce by far. Democratic White House candidates Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Julián Castro had unionized campaign staffs in 2020. Even Biden's campaign unionized after clinching that year's Democratic nomination. The Democratic National Committee's staff is also unionized.
Former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign staff hasn't unionized. The staffs of top Republicans thought to be readying presidential runs, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, probably won't, either.
"In the old days, there were definitely Republicans who were pro-union," Fine said. "But not now."
Biden's 2020 campaign only unionized that May, when it reached an agreement with field organizers represented by the Iowa-based Teamsters Local 238. As entry-level campaign employees, field staffers are often dispatched to different states. Their agreement established a six-day workweek, a $15-per-hour minimum wage and overtime for working more than 40 hours weekly.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his economic agenda Feb. 8 at a training center run by Laborers' International Union of North America in Deforest, Wis.
This time, Biden's campaign will unionize earlier in the process and may face pressure to apply the contract to more staffers, including some at its headquarters, given that the president's administration launched efforts to increase labor organization membership nationwide.
Biden has hosted union organizers in the Oval Office, and the White House is paying interns for the first time since the 1970s.
"I told you I was going to be the most pro-union president in history," Biden said recently. "And I've kept my promise."
While often supportive of unions, Biden signed a bill Dec. 2 to avert a freight rail strike that he said could have plunged the U.S. into a catastrophic recession.
The measure bound rail companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached between the railroads and union leaders in September but rejected by some of the union workers.
The president, for decades a vocal labor ally, called it the “right thing to do” given the risks to an economy that is battling high inflation.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 7 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., listen.
Biden is expected to announce a reelection campaign as soon as next month, after the first-quarter fundraising period concludes at the end of March.
A Biden adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity said the reelection campaign would start with a relatively small staff that grows over time and that it will begin work before a union contract has been reached.
While acknowledging that unionization is still a requirement for Democratic campaigns that Republican ones do not have to worry about, the adviser said Biden's reelection campaign expects to be able to take having a unionized workforce "in stride" and reach an agreement that properly supports staffers and lives up to the president's pro-labor beliefs.
President Joe Biden speaks about the economy to union members Feb. 15 at the IBEW Local Union 26 in Lanham, Md.
Unionizing by Democratic campaigns up and down the ballot goes far beyond the president, having become far more common in recent cycles — especially last fall's midterms.
Faiz Shakir, Sanders' 2020 campaign manager, oversaw a staff of 1,200 across the country by January of that year, represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400. He said most employees routinely worked five days a week early in the campaign, then shifted to six- and seven-day workweeks as the primary progressed — all of which were part of the contact.
"The discourse around unionized work environments, there's this mythology that you are a five-day workweek, 40-hours-a-week worker," Shakir said. "But if you look at a lot of union contracts, they allow and build in the need for labor to be extended beyond normal work hours."
Here's a breakdown of what's in President Biden's proposed budget
Intro
President Joe Biden released his annual budget Thursday, outlining his policy priorities for the year ahead.
Make no mistake, the proposed budget has no chance of making it through the Republican-controlled House. But Biden's plan could frame upcoming political battles on Capitol Hill, where the GOP has yet to unveil its own spending plan.
Biden's budget comes out after the US hit the debt ceiling, a cap set by Congress, earlier this year. The Treasury Department is now taking extraordinary measures to allow the government to keep paying its bills. But the country could start to default on its obligations over the summer if Congress doesn't address the debt ceiling before then. Republicans are calling for some spending cuts in exchange for voting to raise the cap, while the White House does not want to negotiate on resolving the debt limit drama.
Place a minimum tax on billionaires
Place a minimum tax on billionaires: The budget includes a 25% minimum tax on all the income of the wealthiest .01% of Americans, including their appreciated assets. It would hit those with a net worth of more than $100 million. Prior efforts to add this type of tax were not successful.
Increase the corporate tax rate
Increase the corporate tax rate: Biden wants to increase the corporate tax rate to 28%, up from the 21% rate set by the GOP tax cut package in 2017. The budget would also reduce incentives for multinational businesses to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions and raise the tax rate on their foreign earnings to 21% from 10.5%. And it would hike the stock buybacks tax enacted last year to 4%, from 1%.
Repealing Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy
Repealing Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy: Biden's budget would scrap some tax cuts for certain individuals that were put in place by the Republican's 2017 tax law.
Biden's plan would raise the top tax rate to 39.6% from 37%. This would impact single filers making more than $400,000 a year and married couples making more than $450,000 per year, according to the administration.
It also proposes taxing capital gains at the same rate as wage income for those earning more than $1 million, as well as closing the carried interest loophole that allows investment managers to treat much of their compensation as capital gains -- thus lowering their tax rate.
The Biden administration has previously had trouble getting support for these provisions from some Democrats.
Restore the enhanced child tax credit
Restore the enhanced child tax credit: The budget calls for reviving the expanded child tax credit, which was in place for 2021. It would beef up the credit to $3,600 per child for those under age 6 and $3,000 for older children. It would permanently make the credit fully refundable so more low-income families would qualify.
Improve Medicare's finances
Improve Medicare's finances: Biden wants to shore up Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund, known as Part A, by raising taxes on those earning more than $400,000 a year and by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for even more drugs.
Medicare, which covers more than 65 million senior citizens and people with disabilities, will only be able to fully pay scheduled benefits until 2028, according to the most recent forecast by its trustees. Biden's proposal would extend Medicare's solvency by 25 years or more, according to the White House.
The plan would increase the net investment income tax rate on earned and unearned income above $400,000 to 5%, up from 3.8%. Also, it would be levied on the owners of certain pass-through firms who include business income on their personal tax returns and aren't currently subject to the tax.
In addition, the measure would dedicate the revenue from the tax, which was created by the Affordable Care Act, to Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund.
Also, the proposal would build on the Inflation Reduction Act, which congressional Democrats passed last summer, by allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of more drugs and bringing drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch. And it would extend the law's requirement that drug companies pay rebates to Medicare if they increase prices faster than inflation to commercial health insurance.
$35 insulin for all Americans
$35 insulin for all Americans: The budget also calls for capping the price of insulin at $35 a month for everyone. The Inflation Reduction Act limited the price of each insulin prescription to $35 a month for Medicare beneficiaries as of this year.
Democrats had hoped to extend the provision to those with private insurance as part of last year's package, but congressional Republicans blocked the measure.
Reduce prescription drug costs for seniors
Reduce prescription drug costs for seniors: The budget proposes to limit Medicare beneficiaries' out-of-pocket costs for generic drugs used for certain chronic conditions to no more than $2. Seniors' costs would also drop if Medicare expanded its drug price negotiations.
Make enhanced Obamacare subsidies permanent
Make enhanced Obamacare subsidies permanent: Biden wants to continue the more generous Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to expire after 2025. The temporary enhancement has beefed up the premium subsidy and allowed more middle-class folks to qualify. The proposal would also provide Medicaid-like coverage to those in states that have not expanded the public health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Increase food security
Increase food security: The budget would provide more than $15 billion to allow more states and schools to provide free school meals to an additional 9 million children.
Reduce maternal mortality
Reduce maternal mortality: Biden would provide $471 million to reduce maternal mortality rates and expand maternal health initiatives in rural communities. It would also require all states to provide continuous Medicaid postpartum coverage for 12 months, instead of 60 days.
Lower Medicaid spending
Lower Medicaid spending: The budget would require private insurance companies that provide Medicaid coverage to pay back some money when they charge the program far more than they actually spend on patient care. And it would give the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to negotiate additional, supplemental Medicaid drug rebates on behalf of states.
Make college more affordable
Make college more affordable: The spending plan calls for a $500 increase to the maximum Pell grant, which is awarded to roughly 7 million college students from the lowest-income families annually. Currently, the maximum Pell grant is $7,395 for the 2023-2024 school year. Congress has increased the maximum amount by $900 over the past two years, but the grant historically covered a larger share of the cost of college than it does now.
Biden's budget would also provide $500 million for a new grant program to help make two years of community college free.
Universal preschool and affordable child care
Universal preschool and affordable child care: The budget would provide funding for a new federal-state partnership program that would provide universal, free preschool. The spending plan would also increase funding for existing federal early care and education programs.
Provide paid family and medical leave
Provide paid family and medical leave: Biden's budget would establish a national paid family and medical leave program. It would provide 12 weeks of leave for eligible employees to take time off to care for and bond with a new child, care for a seriously ill loved one, heal from their own serious illness, address circumstances arising from a loved one's military deployment, or find safety from domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking, according to the administration.
Congress provided for some paid sick leave during the Covid-19 pandemic, but lawmakers let the benefit expire in 2021.
Address climate change
Address climate change: The spending plan calls for billions of dollars of investment to help address climate change.
For example, money would go toward creating clean-energy jobs and cutting energy bills for families, funding climate research and helping communities become strengthen their infrastructure to withstand floods, wildfires, storms and drought brought on by climate change.
The investments would also help achieve Biden's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50%-52% by 2030.
What can be done to save Social Security and Medicare? | The Ethical Life podcast
