Task force issues blueprint to strengthen labor unions

The White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment issued a report last month outlining proposals for increasing union participation and strengthening the right to organize. The report detailed more than 60 recommendations for revising labor laws and regulations.

The task force developed its recommendations around three primary goals:

• Positioning the federal government as a model actor
• Using federal authority to provide information and improve transparency
• Leveraging the government’s spending power to support pro-worker employers

A number of recommendations are focused on facilitating union support within the federal government. Here, recommendations include distributing union information to new federal employees and facilitating union communication with employees.

The private sector is also likely to see an impact if recommendations such as these are carried out:

• Awareness. The task force recommends that the Department of Labor (DOL) launch a “Know Your Rights” campaign to increase awareness of collective bargaining rights, particularly for younger workers and underserved communities.
• Persuader activity. Recommendations include increased disclosure requirements for employers that hire anti-union consultants to defeat union drives.
• Worker classification. Increased scrutiny of independent contractor relationships, including greater investigation and prosecution of work misclassification.
• Protecting workers. To help prevent illegal retaliation, the task force recommended increased cooperation and coordination between the DOL, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and other agencies. Likewise, the task force believes that the Small Business Administration can play a role by educating small businesses around labor laws, helping employers to respond fairly and lawfully to an organizing effort.
• Federal contracts. Federal contractors may find it more difficult to obtain federal funding if they speak out against unionization or decline to execute a project labor agreement.

Not all measures will be implemented immediately. Some recommendations may require statutory notices and comment procedures before they can take effect.

Union organizing is at near historic lows, with just over 6% of private sector workers belonging to a union in 2021. And yet 68% of Americans said they approve of labor unions in a 2021 Gallup poll, which is the highest union approval score recorded since the 1960s.

The task force was created by President Joe Biden in April 2021 and is chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.