Biden Signs EO to Boost Worker Organizing and Empowerment

President Biden is signing an executive order (EO) today that will establish a task force for worker organizing and facilitate organizing across the country through an all-of-government approach to mobilizing Federal policies, programs, and practices.

The White House Task Force on Organizing and Empowerment “will be dedicated to mobilizing the Federal government’s policies, programs, and practices to empower workers to organize and successfully bargain with their employers.”

The mission of this task force includes: seeking ways to increase worker power in areas of the country with restrictive labor laws, for marginalized workers including women and people of color, and workers in industries that are difficult to organize and lack labor protections.

The EO will make a set of recommendations within 180 days of being implemented and that will address two key issues. Those two key issues include “how can existing policies, programs, and practices be used to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining in the Federal government” and “where are new policies needed to achieve the Task Force’s mission and what are the associated regulatory and statutory changes needed?”

Additionally, the Task Force will aim to accomplish four goals:

1. Leading by example through ensuring that the Federal government is a model employer with respect to encouraging worker organizing and collective bargaining among its workforce;
2. Facilitating worker organizing across the country through an all-of-government approach to mobilizing the Federal government’s policies, programs, and practices to provide workers the opportunity to organize and bargain collectively;
3. Increasing worker power in underserved communities through examining and seeking to address the challenges to worker organizing in jurisdictions with restrictive labor laws, additional challenges that marginalized workers, and the heightened barriers to organizing workers in certain industries; and
4. Increasing union membership across the country to grow a more inclusive middle class and provide workers the opportunity to come together for the purpose of mutual advancement, dignity of worker and workers, respect, and the fair compensation they deserve.

Task Force membership will be comprised of more than twenty cabinet members and other Federal agency heads, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the Task Force’s Chair and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh serving as the Vice-Chair.