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While President Joe Biden is working behind the scenes to “Trump proof” the dismantling of his presidential legacy of incompetence and dictatorial mandates, Biden is also working in front of the cameras in an effort to burnish his image. On Monday, the president signed a proclamation that established the home of late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins as a national monument. This endeavor, which was spearheaded by the Maine AFL-CIO, had been in the making since March. Since Biden crafted his presidency after FDR and designated himself as the most pro-union president in history, it is totally on brand that he would choose to commemorate the first female secretary of labor who crafted the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and fashioned the United States Department of Labor into what it is today, especially its twin pillars of wage fairness and the nobility and necessity of union membership.

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As labor secretary, Perkins helped President Franklin D. Roosevelt formulate policies behind the 1930s New Deal and create safeguards in the national economy following the Great Depression.

During her 12 years as Roosevelt’s labor secretary, she was credited with helping establish the Social Security Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the National Labor Relations Act that established workers’ rights to organize, and collective bargaining.

“Frances Perkins accepted the position as the first female Cabinet member only after President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to support her goals to improve working conditions for all people,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. “She worked tirelessly to see them to fruition, and she set a standard of excellence that is a beacon for all of us who serve.”

Biden even attempted to appoint a radical progressive incompetent to the post of United States Secretary of Labor and as much as bragged about this in this speech. What Biden failed to note is that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su was never confirmed by the Senate, because she is that incompetent. Yet, Su was there anyway, praised and introduced by the first female president of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler, who credited Su with turning “the Department of Labor into a true House of Labor.” A house of labor that has tacitly excluded and targeted the more than 64 million independent professionals and small businesses; but, apples and oranges.

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Like good little union stooges, the attendees gave Su a standing ovation as she came to the podium. Reflective of Su’s vapidity, in her introduction of Biden, she compared him to Reese’s candy. “President Biden and labor just go together.”

Truly gag-worthy. Su also announced that Biden would be added to the “Wall of Honor” in the Department of Labor building (named for Frances Perkins) for his leadership in the labor fight.

History will record Joe Biden as the most pro-worker, pro-union President this nation has had. Leadership matters. And President Biden demonstrated his commitment to working people daily by taking bold actions and daring to fight the big fights. In the last four years, that has meant fighting to increase overtime pay, pushing for a national heat standard, protecting retirees’ pensions and putting more than $1 billion in wages and damages into workers’ pockets, to name a few. 

That anti-employer overtime pay rule has been blocked by a federal judge, and sources predict it won’t be overturned on appeal, if they even bother to do so in these waning days. Protecting bloated union pensions in this age of DOGE is not the flex he thinks it is. Then there is that one billion in wages and damages that the administration recovered from wage theft and misclassification. Success in these areas proves that the adversarial tactics to destroy independent professionals and small businesses that are predicated on these premises are merely a canard to embed union control. 

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Su continued:

But no example says more about who President Biden is than the day he walked the picket line with striking autoworkers, becoming the first sitting president ever to do so. No one believes in worker power more than this President, which is why I am honored and delighted to honor his work within the walls of the Frances Perkins Building, adding his name to the Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor.”

So, despite marching with them, the rank-and-file of the UAW and other unions showed their disdain for Biden’s policies by endorsing Trump in the 2024 election, and their leaders refused to endorse anyone. That’s how valued Biden’s pro-union legacy is.

Su announced Biden to the podium, and he shuffled up to it amidst chants of, “Thank You Joe!” Biden proceeded to cough his way through a rambling, fact-devoid speech that had little to do with the moment and everything to do with making himself and his record of pro-union policies look good. Quotes from his father, how he and Barack Obama instituted the Affordable Care Act, and how his father was accepted to John Hopkins but didn’t go (true story, yeah.)

When Biden started talking about building the economy, his nose may have actually started to grow.

Together, we built an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, and because we know this simple truth: Wall Street didn’t build America; the middle class built America, and u — (applause) — and unions built the middle class.  (Applause.)  Un- — and that’s a fact. 

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No, the fact is that inflation is still on the rise, people, including those union members, still cannot afford basic necessities, and they voted for Trump because they wanted change—not more policies that favor the furtherance of labor. But Biden doubled down on the strong record argument while recognizing that this very record was now on the chopping block because his party was out of power at all levels of government.

So much — so much is going on.  But it’s going to take a little bit of time.  But we got to make sure to protect — protect the — the onslaught that’s going to come, because it’s hard to see right away.

Awkward. Yes, the end is drawing near, currently in small increments until President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. Thanks to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), small businesses, franchisers, and independent professionals were handed a major victory when Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s bid to install National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman Lauren McFerran for another five-year term was voted down. McFerran and her fellow board members are rabid union acolytes, so the hope is that a new Trump-appointed chairman will afford a necessary firewall for the 90 percent of those who do not need and have no desire to be under the thumb of big labor. 

However, if Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, former OR Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, manages to squeak through, it may well continue to be business as usual. Both the U.S. Department of Labor and the NLRB’s aims have been to protect and further codify policies, which Frances Perkins helped institute. In this age of information, entrepreneurial ingenuity, and advanced technology, these outdated and outmoded concepts of labor and the economy should have been revised or repealed decades ago. Instead, they are preserved like some sacred texts.

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But with 35 days before he has to give up the ship, Biden has to protect and preserve whatever legacy his tiny presidential library will hold. Good luck with that.