Monday saw the creation of a labor task force within the Biden administration released a reportThis document contains dozens new guidelines to make it easier for workers unionization.
In its report, the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment – led by Vice President Kamala Harris and vice chair Labor Secretary Marty Walsh – presented around 70 recommendationsTo promote collective bargaining and organizing. The recommendations are intended to achieve the following goals: the task force wrote, is to promote more good faith negotiating, to empower the workforce and to promote the use of federal funds to support organizing workers and “pro-worker employers.”
The White House stated that it plans to implement all of the task force’s suggestions. The task force will submit a second reportThe White House has added six months of updates and additional suggestions.
In its report, the task force recommends instructing government agencies to take steps to decrease “persuader” activity, or when a company hires anti-union consultants to quash union drives. The task force also suggests that the Department of Labor wage a pro-union communication campaign in order to increase workers’ awareness of their ability to collectively bargain and organize.
The report recommends reforming federal funding programs and calls for the following: barring companies fromFederal contract money used to union bust and to hire anti-union campaigners.
Membership in the Union has been steadily decliningIt has been at an all-time low since the 1960s. Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reportedThe union membership rate was a pitiful 10.3 percent for 2021, which is the same as 2019 but lower than 10.8 percent for 2020.
“Union density isn’t low because Americans don’t like unions,” the report’s authors wrote. “Today, 68% of Americans approve of labor unions – the highest level on record since 1965, and support for unions among young workers is even higher.”
“Polls show that more and more workers – a full 52 percent of non-union workers – want to join unions,” the report goes on. “This gap between the percentage of workers who want a union and the percentage of workers who have a union is part of the reason for this Task Force and this report.”
Joe Biden has repeatedly vowed to be the most prolabor president of all time in U.S. history.
“When unions win, workers across the board win. That’s a fact. America wins when families win, communities win, and America wins when families win. We grow. And despite this, workers have been getting cut out of the deal for too long a time,” Biden said in September. “In my White House … labor will always be welcome. You know, you’ve heard me say many times: I intend to be the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history.”
There has been a significant increase in labor activity in the United States over the past year. Is theStarbucks workers led a union drive last year that resulted in over 50 storesIn the last few months, only a handful of workers have filed for unionization. Workers are also in the midst several union campaignsNew York and Alabama have Amazon warehouses. A successful union drive could send shockwaves through labor.
There may be more labor reforms in the future. In a recent interview with More Perfect UnionJennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), stated that she would crack down on anti-union meetings and other tactics companies use to union bust in the critical period between a petition being filed and an election.
“We should not be allowing our processes to be abused in that way,” Abruzzo said. “Employers do have the right to express their opinion, but they don’t have the right to coerce, interfere with, or threaten employees with adverse action.”
She will ask the NLRB if they are open to implementing the Joy Silk doctrine. legal researchers sayThis could be a huge help to the labor movement. Employers must recognize and bargain with a union only if they have the support of a majority or less of their workers. present legitimate reasons as to why the company can’t voluntarily recognize a union. This would avoid the union election process, and, crucially the period before an election, during which companies often use their most aggressive union-busting strategies.
