White House labor taskforce to boost union memberships

Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh are set to hold a second White House meeting on Thursday with the labor task force, a group of cabinet secretaries and top aides that focus on boosting union memberships in the country. The group will be discussing recommendations on a report on ways to promote labor organizing in the federal government and to find new policies. The group will also be discussing the federal government's authority as an employer and how to promote worker organizing. 

The first meeting with the labor task force was held in June in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Kamala Harris spoke to union organizers about their campaign to increase union memberships barriers to organizing. Data shows that between 1970 and 2020 the percentage of American workers represented by a union fell by 14.95 and as a result, American workers are losing out on $200 billion a year in wages and benefits they could have achieved under union contracts, the White House has said.  President Biden's administration might be the most overtly pro-union one in years. Earlier this year, the US labor movement suffered a setback when efforts by warehouse workers at an Amazon facility in Alabama failed.

Source: Reuters