President Joe Biden is taking nearly 70 new steps to live up to his pledge to be the most pro-union president in U.S. history. Biden has
said he will adopt the
recommendations of a task force on worker organizing and empowerment formed last April. The task force is chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris and vice-chaired by Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.
“The National Labor Relations Act, enacted in 1935, noted that it is the policy of the United States to encourage the practice and procedure of collective bargaining, and to protect the exercise, by workers, of their full freedom of association. Unfortunately, the federal government has not always done its part to turn this policy into action,” the report notes in discussing the task force’s mission.
“While some past administrations have taken individual actions to empower workers and strengthen their rights, the Biden-Harris administration will be the first to take a comprehensive approach to doing so with the existing authority of the executive branch,” it continues. “Our goal is not just to facilitate worker power through executive action—it is to model practices that can be followed by state and local governments, private sector employers, and others.”
