Thursday, May 10, 2018

Sanders V. Biden

A new bill aimed at bolstering unions' power and ending abuses by employers was met with loud cheers in Washington, D.C., where Sen. Bernie Sanders and several Democratic lawmakers introduced the legislation.

This is nothing radical," said Sanders. "This simply says, when working people want to come together to form a union with decent wages and decent benefits, we will no longer tolerate corporate America denying them that right."

The Workplace Democracy Act, introduced by Sanders in the Senate and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) in the House, with a handful of Democratic co-sponsors, would combat wage stagnation, protect workers from being penalized for organizing activity, and streamline the process for joining labor unions.

"We must no longer tolerate CEOs and managers who intimidate, threaten or fire pro-union workers, who threaten to move plants to China if their workers vote in favor of a union, and who refuse to negotiate a first contract with workers who have voted to join unions," Sanders said to a group of supporters and union members. "If we are serious about reducing income and wealth inequality and rebuilding the middle class, we have got to substantially increase the number of union jobs in this country."

Sanders said, "Corporate America understands that when workers become organized, when workers are able to engage in collective bargaining, they end up with far better wages and benefits...and that is why, for decades now, there has been a concentrated well-organized attack on the ability of workers to organize." 

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, explains, "I love Bernie, but I'm not Bernie Sanders," Biden said during remarks at the Brookings Institute in the nation's capital. "I don't think 500 billionaires are the reason we're in trouble. The folks at the top aren't bad guys."


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