Right now, Bessemer, Alabama is the site of maybe the most high-profile union drive in the United States, as close to six thousand Amazon warehouse workers vote on whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). A successful vote could make them the first unionized Amazon workers in the country, blow a hole in the South’s longtime resistance to unionization, and spur similar organizing efforts across the country, widening the bounds of possibility for millions of US workers. Not surprisingly, the company is doing everything it can to beat back what is also, in effect, one of the most important fights for racial equality of the decade so far.

Yet President Joe Biden is missing in action.

Despite a political career and presidential campaign built in large part around the image of a hardscrabble, working-class union man “from belt buckle to shoe sole” — and despite pledging to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen” — Biden has stayed silent on the unionization battle, choosing not to even condemn Amazon’s union-busting tactics. It’s in stark contrast to the White House’s outspoken support for embattled Office of Management and Budget nominee (and union-buster) Neera Tanden, with officials “working the phones” to save the controversial nominee from herself.