On Support for Unionizing Amazon, Joe Biden’s Bark Has So Far Been Bigger Than His Bite

Joe Biden pledged to support workers’ unionization efforts at Amazon on Wednesday, saying, “Amazon, here we come.” But his failure so far to implement any of the recommendations of his task force on worker organization seems to speak louder than his words.

Joe Biden speaking with supporters at a community event at Sun City MacDonald Ranch in Henderson, Nevada, on February 12, 2020. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)


On Wednesday, President Joe Biden made headlines pledging to support Amazon workers trying to unionize the nation’s largest retailer, declaring “Amazon, here we come” and boasting that “I created the White House task force on worker organization and empowerment to make sure that the choice to join a union belongs to workers alone.”

But as campaign cash from Amazon-linked donors and anti-union law firms has flooded into the coffers of Biden and his Democratic Party, the president has so far refused to use his executive authority to actually implement any of that task force’s major recommendations — even though its proposals were far weaker than his 2020 campaign pledges and likely wouldn’t have helped Amazon workers’ union drive.

What might have helped are executive actions Biden continues to avoid. For instance, he has refused to reinstate a Barack Obama–era rule requiring companies like Amazon to disclose all of their spending to crush union drives. Such disclosures can help union organizers combat the anti-labor tactics of major law firms, like those that previously employed the husband of the task force’s chair — Vice President Kamala Harris.

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