As Joe Biden courted the crucial endorsement of the United Auto Workers, his administration allowed government scientists to join the blue-collar union, ignoring legal concerns.
The Biden administration permitted graduate students doing temporary work for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to unionize, despite initially stating that they were ineligible because they were not even employees. The white-collar academics have since become a highly political and radically-Democratic faction within the auto workers union, which is otherwise losing membership.
The reversal came as Biden “systematically courted” the endorsement of UAW honcho Shawn Fain, who had been critical of the president, but came through with the endorsement soon after the NIH move.
The UAW has turned to students and academics, despite having little in common with blue-collar factory workers, to offset the