(CNN) – President Joe Biden continued his series of pro-union moves since joining the White House on Tuesday by asking the House to pass legislation to make union formation easier for workers.
Biden strongly encouraged the House of Representatives to pass the so-called “PRO Law”, a law that would encourage unions and “dramatically improve the power of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions.” The House passed the bill later Tuesday evening.
The statement is the latest high profile announcement of anti-union policies since taking office, and all signs point to more in the future.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought workers’ rights back to the fore, and Americans continue to grapple with issues related to job security and the health risks associated with returning to work.
Days after taking office, days after taking office, Biden signed an ordinance restoring collective bargaining power to federal employees. His administration also removed Trump-appointed officials from the National Labor Relations Board.
In particular, with Big Tech continuing to grapple with emerging organizational efforts and a possible overhaul of the gig economy, Biden appears to have weighed on historic union efforts for thousands of Amazon employees working in the company’s Alabama warehouse.
In a video released earlier this month, he expressed his support for organizing the efforts of “workers in Alabama” and others across the country.
“This is critically important, an extremely important decision as America grapples with the deadly pandemic, economic crisis and race reckoning – which shows the deep differences that still persist in our country,” Biden said in the video. “And there should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda.”
Biden has also taken more symbolic approaches to signal that the unions will be front and center during his presidency.
For example, on his first day in office, a bust of union leader Cesar Chavez was installed behind his desk.
He has also named Marty Walsh, Boston’s mayor and former union leader, as labor secretary. It’s also worth noting, however, that Biden’s trade secretary, former Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, encountered fierce opposition from unions in the state as she sought to raise the retirement age and push through pension reform.
There are still a number of labor law actions that the Biden Campaign has suggested that Biden could take action on.
As part of his campaign platform, Biden also spoke out in favor of other labor laws, including the Act on Fairness to Farm Workers and the Bill of Rights for Domestic Workers.
Biden’s presidential campaign plan for labor also provides for the formation of a cabinet-level working group during the first 100 days of the presidency to increase union density. Another goal of the campaign was to require federal contractors to sign agreements stating that anti-union campaigns should not be carried out. This could have a dramatic impact on large tech companies that have signed contracts with the federal government.
PRO Act
The Law on the Protection of the Right to Organize (PRO) contains a number of provisions that proponents say should make it easier for workers to form unions, strike and negotiate better wages and working conditions.
It could also turn existing labor law on its head by taking into account measures such as fines imposed by the National Labor Relations Board and possible civil penalties for violations of labor rights. the weakening of states’ “right to work” laws, which prevent workers from being forced to join a union as a prerequisite for their work; and, as a consequence of the freelance and gig economy, taking an “ABC” test to determine if an individual is an employee or a contract worker.
“I urge Congress to send the PRO Act to my desk so that we can take the opportunity to build a future that reflects the courage and ambition of the working people, not just good jobs with a real choice to join to a union offers – but also dignity and justice “Shared prosperity and common purpose deserved by the hardworking people who built this country and made it work,” Biden said.
Even though it has passed the house, there will be a rise in the Senate. The bill, which was first introduced in 2018, has met with considerable resistance from corporate groups and executives.
Suzanne Clark, president of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a letter to Congress Monday that the bill would “hamper economic recovery through its many harmful labor and employment policies.”
Biden promised during the campaign that he would be “the most union-friendly president you have ever seen,” but he has been a union-friendly politician since he was a senator.
According to his campaign, Biden was one of the first in the 1970s to say he supported secondary boycotts – actions by a union against an employer for doing business with a company in an industrial dispute. He was also the original co-sponsor of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act.
During his tenure as Vice President he also spoke about anti-union efforts.
In haunting remarks at a United Auto Workers conference in 2014, amid the emergence of right to work laws in states, Biden argued that large corporations and conservative supporters wanted a “right for them to have your say in your work.” . “He said trade unions are” the only ones who … keep barbarians at the gate “.
This story was updated with additional developments on Tuesday evening.
CNN’s Alicia Wallace and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
Comments are closed.