Huh! President Joe Biden actually cares more about something than Big Labor: himself. He now wants Congress to force rail unions to take a deal and avert a catastrophic strike, even though some unions have already nixed it.

What a departure from the collective-bargaining-above-all approach he’s long taken. And it’s obvious why: With Americans already facing Bidenflation and a potentially painful recession, a rail strike would utterly slam the nation’s economy — and his legacy.

“I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to adopt the Tentative Agreement [reached in September by] railroad workers and operators,” Biden said Monday, insisting no “path to resolve the dispute at the bargaining table” exists.

Hmm. Just this year he was backing unionization of Amazon workers, warning, “Amazon, here we come. Watch.”

Last year, too, he pushed unionization drives and praised organized labor for winning workers better terms. His proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act and American Jobs Plan aimed to unionize practically the entire US workforce (by nixing states’ right-to-work laws, for example).

Indeed, it’s hard to find Biden legislation that doesn’t throw labor bones, no matter the expense to taxpayers, businesses or consumers.

Yet a rail strike now — right before the holidays — would send his approval ratings through the floor. It could put 765,000 people out of work within two weeks, cost the economy $2 billion a day, raise producer prices 4% and even threaten access to vital chemicals needed to ensure clean water and feed for livestock.

In September, Biden gloated about how the deal he’d secured then proved wrong those who doubted he could head off a strike. Oops: Looks like it didn’t. But it did score points for Democrats, delaying potential labor action until after the midterms (though perhaps inviting the unions to demand even more).

So now Union Joe has suddenly become Union-Buster-in-Chief, asking Congress to force a deal on workers, and to hell with their “choices.” It’s the correct move: No one wants a rail strike to nuke an already ailing US economy.

But it sure would be nice if the prez finally understood that everyday businesses, taxpayers and consumers are also sometimes threatened by greedy unions — and that disputes between management and workers should generally be left to themselves, without Uncle Sam’s thumb on the scale.