The Democratic Party and the Labor Union Paradox

Democrats should love unions. But what happens when the relationship becomes complicated?

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka speaking after the 2018 Janus ruling restricting public sector unions. Source: WBUR

The Biden presidency has renewed a series of internal debates in the Democratic Party that had been subsumed during the years of resistance to the Trump administration. One of the strongest has been the party’s complicated relationship with labor unions. Democrats seem to love the idea of…