CHICAGO — Vice President Joe Biden lambasted what he called an increasingly union- hostile “new” Republican Party in a speech delivered to National Education Association representatives Sunday, raising the specter of high-profile labor fights picked by Republican governors with public-worker unions across the country.
“There is an organized effort to place blame for budget shortfalls on educators and other public workers. It is one of the biggest scams in modern American history,” Biden said.
“The new Republican Party has undertaken the most direct assault on labor, not just in my lifetime . . . but literally since the 1920s,” he said. “This is not your father’s Republican Party. This is a different breed of cat.”
Biden’s remarks to one of the nation’s largest teachers unions came a day before its members are expected to decide whether to support President Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.
Although Republicans have not yet chosen a single candidate to oppose the president, the National Education Association assembly that includes a delegate from each of its 10,000 local unions is expected to vote on the presidential endorsement today.
The organization includes 3.2 million members nationwide.
The president and his education advisers — including U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan — have trumpeted many reforms during the past three years that riled teachers unions and many rank-and-file educators. No administration officials addressed the annual convention last year.
However, whatever hard feelings may have existed appeared to be smoothed over, as rhetoric from conservative politicians around the country has taken a decidedly anti-union swing this past year.
