Bernie Sanders jabs Joe Biden for not replying when asked to fulfill his promise to halt federal contracts for anti-union employers

Nicole Gaudiano
Tue, February 21, 2023

Bernie Sanders and Joe BidenShannon Stapleton/Reuters

Sanders liked Biden's campaign promise to halt federal contracts for anti-union employers.


Sanders criticizes Biden for not responding to his request that he follow through on the promise.


"As I write these words some months later, he has not replied," Sanders writes in his new book.

Sen. Bernie Sanders liked President Joe Biden's campaign promise to halt federal contracts for anti-union employers. Now he wants Biden to follow through.

In his new book, the Vermont independent criticizes Biden for not responding to his April 2022 letter urging him to sign an executive order to ban companies like Amazon from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts after he says they "violated labor laws."

"As I write these words some months later, he has not replied," Sanders writes in "It's OK To Be Angry About Capitalism."

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Biden has pledged to be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen" and says his infrastructure and manufacturing policies are designed to create union jobs. He tweeted a video message supporting Amazon workers hoping to unionize in Alabama.

Sanders, in his April 26, 2020, letter to Biden, wrote that he was "delighted" to hear Biden's pro-union intentions. He reminded Biden of his campaign promise to "institute a multi-year federal debarment" for employers illegally opposing unions and ensuring federal contracts only go to employers who agree to not run anti-union campaigns.

"That campaign promise was exactly right. Today, I am asking you to fulfill that promise," wrote Sanders, who also held a hearing on the subject when serving as Budget Committee chairman last year. He called Amazon the "poster child as to why this anti-union busting Executive Order is needed now more than ever."

In his book, Sanders doubles down against Amazon and its executive chairman Jeff Bezos, calling him "the embodiment of the extreme corporate greed that shapes our times. While he becomes richer, his employees struggle to get by."