White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment
In April 2021, the Biden Administration announced the creation of a Task Force on Organizing and Worker Empowerment.
The White House statement on the Task Force declared, “as the President has said: America was built by the middle class, and unions built the middle class. Throughout our country’s history, unions have been the driving forces for advancement in workers’ rights and improved living standards for union and nonunion workers.”
The stated purpose of the Task Force was to promote unions and collective bargaining. It is another example of President Biden acting to fulfill his promise to be the most pro-union President in generations.
On Feb. 7, 2022, the task force issued a report containing 70 recommendations. The recommendations generally fit under three categories:
- Position the federal government as a model actor;
- Use the federal government’s authority to improve transparency and effectively enforce existing workers’ rights; and
- Use the governments leverage as purchaser of goods and services to support pro-worker employers and workers interested in organizing.
The recommendations include strategies to:
+ Empower workers and remove obstacles to organizing
+ Ensure union access to employees
+ Facilitate first contracts
+ Improve transparency of antiunion campaigns by employers
+ Increase awareness of worker rights
+ Prevent and address worker misclassification
+ Apply strong labor standards on federally funded projects
+ Strengthen Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections
+ Improve enforcement of existing labor standards
+ Require union participation on federal advisory panels
The report demonstrates the Biden Administration's continued support of workers and organized labor. To read this report, go to https://bit.ly/3aftSpZ