At an event celebrating Labor Day in 2021, President Joe Biden said, “I intend to be the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.”

Tell that to the nearly eleven hundred union workers in Brookwood, Alabama, who are returning to work for Warrior Met Coal after an almost two-year-long strike. These workers faced down a company backed by powerful private equity firms, a state GOP hostile to labor, and overzealous police in a state where Donald Trump beat Biden by twenty-five points. And throughout their heroic struggle, the most pro-union president of the most pro-union administration in American history was nowhere to be seen. If Biden wanted to reverse the losses of working-class voters, this would’ve been a perfect opportunity to show up — but the administration sat this fight out.

The difficult reality is that workers fighting for decency and democracy on the job don’t just have to stand up to companies. They also have to contend with hostile governments and a legal system that comes down hard against labor. When it supports them, the system rarely does so with enough force to deter the anti-worker behavior of corporations. And when those in power refuse to stand behind workers in struggle, the latter are often doomed to lose.