Different labor leaders, whereas citing shortcomings of the Obama presidency, say Mr. Biden was an advocate for his or her pursuits throughout the
Different labor leaders, whereas citing shortcomings of the Obama presidency, say Mr. Biden was an advocate for his or her pursuits throughout the administration. Lecturers’ unions were furious after Mr. Obama publicly embraced the firing of the complete college of an underperforming faculty in Rhode Island in 2010. However Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Lecturers, mentioned Mr. Biden helped resolve the state of affairs.
“We began having a reasonably heated argument, me and the vp, at an A.F.L. assembly,” Ms. Weingarten mentioned. “However he heard what I used to be saying.”
Jared Bernstein, an financial adviser to Mr. Biden throughout his vice presidency, mentioned the identical was usually true on commerce and different points, together with labor-law reform, which confronted a sophisticated path within the Senate. “I do know for a reality the place Biden is on these items,” Mr. Bernstein mentioned. “However he was a part of an administration that at instances very a lot happy the unions, and at different instances very a lot pissed them off.”
(As a senator, Mr. Biden supported some free-trade laws, just like the North American Free Commerce Settlement.)
However many labor officers regard Mr. Biden as primarily a sympathetic face for unfriendly insurance policies he was both powerless to reverse or personally superior. One cited Mr. Biden’s role in main the negotiations with Republicans over a long-term deficit-cutting deal that could have led to cuts in applications like Social Safety and Medicare.
Mr. Biden, whose document on Social Safety has been a subject of sparring with the Sanders marketing campaign, says he supports an enlargement of advantages for a lot of retirees.
Frank Flanders, the political director of the meals staff’ native in Ottumwa, mentioned that he was skeptical of Mr. Biden’s views on commerce and his extra hawkish overseas coverage views, and that he regarded Mr. Biden as a “company Democrat.”
“I believe we had a whole lot of Trump voters within the basic, for essentially the most half it’s as a result of he wasn’t Hillary,” mentioned Mr. Flanders, describing how his members voted in 2016. “It’s additionally a priority I’ve a few Biden candidacy.”