Biden Forms Task Force to Explore Ways to Help Labor

For example, if a federal agency were buying medical gloves from an aggressively anti-union company, it could tell the company that “your vehement anti-labor practices have demonstrated a higher risk for a labor disruption,” Ms. Christman said. She added that the agency might be able to conclude: “We can’t have $15 million worth of purple gloves stuck in a warehouse somewhere. We need to find a more reliable path to getting that stuff.”

Even before the announcement of the task force, many labor leaders regarded Mr. Biden as the most pro-union president in generations. They cited his quick ouster of Trump appointees they regarded as anti-labor, the tens of billions of dollars for shoring up union pension plans enacted in his pandemic relief bill and a video message during a recent union campaign at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama warning employers not to coerce or threaten workers who are deciding whether to unionize.

Many union advocates have compared him favorably with his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, who they complained was loath to support unions vocally.

The task force comes at a particularly frustrating moment for organized labor. Roughly two-thirds of Americans approve of unions, according to a 2020 Gallup poll, but just over 6 percent of private-sector workers belong to them.

Union leaders say that current labor law, which allows employers to saturate workers with anti-union messages and does little to punish employers who threaten or fire workers seeking to join a union, makes it very difficult to unionize.

Many union officials have cited the loss in the election at Amazon, whose results were announced this month, as an illustration of the need to reform labor law and develop new organizing strategies.

Amazon said its employees chose not to join a union, and management-side lawyers say many employers have gotten better over the years at heeding workers’ concerns, making unions less necessary.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/business/economy/biden-labor-task-force-union.html