Joe Biden emphasizes unions, economy at worker training center in DeForest

“The Biden economic plan is working,” Biden told a receptive audience at the Laborers’ International Union of North America Center here in his first speech after Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

“But that’s not news to any of you. Laborers here in Wisconsin, union workers across the country are seeing it firsthand because for the first time in a long time, we’re building an economy from the bottom up.”

Biden in his 24-minute speech highlighted two key aspects of the message likely to feature prominently in any reelection campaign: What he called the hollowing-out of the working class and how his administration seeks to build it up. That message is central to Democrats’ hopes for winning back the support of blue-collar workers, who have shifted more Republican since 2010.

“For decades, the backbone of America, the middle class, has been hollowed out,” Biden said. Referring to the former General Motors plant in Janesville, which shuttered its doors in 2008 and left the community in turmoil, Biden said: “Thousands of people lost their jobs.

“Once-thriving cities and towns became shadows of what they used to be. When those towns were hollowed out, something else was lost: Pride, self-esteem, a sense of self-worth. But now we’re going to turn that around.”

In DeForest, Biden took credit for creating more jobs in two years than any other president did in four years. A White House memo sent out before the event says private companies have committed $4 billion in manufacturing across Wisconsin since Biden took office. It also says $2.9 billion in federal funding has been allotted to infrastructure projects across the state.

“Here in Wisconsin we are seeing the results of this investment firsthand,” Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said before Biden’s arrival in DeForest. “Our economy is in the strongest position ever in state history.”

The union vote

Biden’s visit comes as federal labor data shows just under 8% of workers in Wisconsin are represented by a union, an all-time low. In 1989, over 20% of Wisconsin workers belonged to a union.

Those figures are no surprise after former Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s signature legislation, 2011 Act 10, largely eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees, said Kent Miller, the president and business manager of the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council, which runs the DeForest training center.

But registered apprentice numbers are at a two-decade high, Miller added, and will likely further increase thanks to Biden signing into law provisions making some tax credits available for companies that employ a certain number of apprentices.

The LIUNA training center offers courses on laying pipe, building scaffolds, environmental remediation, building demolition, utility construction and dozens of other topics.

“Increasing the share of the union vote makes a big difference,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Ben Wikler said in an interview. “But it’s also certainly the case that unions help focus voters on the impact on their pocketbook of having Democrats in office.”

Much of Biden’s speech related to the economy, though he also took aim at a handful of GOP lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, of Oshkosh, for comments regarding Medicare and Social Security. Johnson in August said those programs should be approved annually by Congress, rather than being automatically renewed.

“Come on, man,” Biden said Wednesday.

‘Deflect, divide’

Johnson said late Wednesday afternoon that Biden was lying about him.

“I want to save these programs,” he said in a statement. “I have simply pointed out the greatest threat to these programs is out-of-control debt and deficits. We need a process to prioritize spending and decrease our deficits.”

Just before his speech, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said Biden’s post-State of the Union “victory lap” in Wisconsin is out of touch with Americans struggling in the economy.

“Every day is a crisis for American workers facing rising costs to feed their families, yet Joe Biden continues to deflect, divide, and duck blame without offering solutions,” she said.

Biden’s Wisconsin visit follows a nationwide labor market report that far exceeded economists’ expectations. The U.S. economy added 517,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, its lowest rate since 1969, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

At the same time, Biden’s approval ratings are among the worst ever for a president’s second year. Forty percent of Americans approved of Biden compared to 53% who disapproved of him as of Jan. 25, according to a Reuters poll.

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate was 3.2% as of December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But employers statewide have been struggling to find workers. And there will be 130,000 fewer working Wisconsinites by 2030 if recent migration patterns continue, according to the Wisconsin Counties Association’s nonpartisan research arm Forward Analytics.

With the worker shortage in mind, the Republican-led Legislature recently approved putting an advisory referendum on the April 4 ballot — which also features the Wisconsin Supreme Court race — asking voters whether some adults should have to seek work to receive benefits from taxpayer-funded programs. Democrats called the effort a politically motivated election turnout effort that would divide Wisconsinites. The referendum’s results will not have any binding effect.