Power Point on Google shared drive
To Designated Lead Staffers for the AFL-CIO Worker Organizing and Empowerment Working Group:
From: AFL-CIO Office of the President
Date: Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 2:45 PM
Subject: White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment
To: AFL-CIO Office of the President
MEMORANDUM
TO: All National and International Union Presidents
FROM: Richard L. Trumka
On April 26, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to create the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which includes more than 20 cabinet members and the heads of other relevant federal agencies. Vice President Harris will chair the Task Force and Labor Secretary Walsh will be vice-chair.
The AFL-CIO is initiating a process to provide information to, and engage with, the Task Force. Our process will be modeled after the process we initiated in July 2020, to provide transition recommendations to the new administration. Our aim is to make the Task Force as successful as possible in growing the labor movement and building worker power, while at the same time we pull out all the stops to enact the PRO Act and public sector bargaining legislation.
Accordingly, I am asking every affiliate to name a senior staff member to the AFL-CIO Worker Organizing and Empowerment Task Force Working Group. Please complete this form by May 7, 2021. The Task Force Working Group will hold its first meeting during the week of May 10. Please reach out to Policy Director Kelly Ross with any questions at kross@aflcio.org or (202) 431-3748.
The purpose of the Task Force Working Group will be to provide information to the Task Force to help it fulfill its mandate, which is as follows:
● To identify executive branch policies, practices, and programs that could be used to promote the administration’s policy of support for worker power, worker organizing, and collective bargaining. This identification shall include policies, practices, and programs that could be used to promote worker power in areas of the country with hostile labor laws, for marginalized workers (including women and persons of color) and hard-to-organize industries, and in changing industries.
● To identify statutory, regulatory, or other changes that may be necessary to make policies, practices, and programs more effective means of supporting worker organizing and collective bargaining.
● To submit to the President within 180 days recommendations for actions to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining in the public and private sectors, and to increase union density. The Task Force may recommend appropriate or time-sensitive individual actions to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining before the 180 day deadline.
● To implement all recommendations that the President may approve and to report their progress.
A White House Fact Sheet on the Task Force further explains that the Task Force will have four goals:
● To lead by example by ensuring that the federal government is a model employer with respect to encouraging worker organizing and collective bargaining among its workforce.
● To facilitate worker organizing across the country by taking an all-of-government approach to mobilize the federal government’s policies, programs, and practices to provide workers the opportunity to organize and bargain collectively.
● To increase worker power in underserved communities by examining and seeking to address the particular challenges to worker organizing in jurisdictions with restrictive labor laws; the added challenges that marginalized workers in many communities encounter, including women and people of color; and the heightened barriers to organizing workers in certain industries.
● To increase union membership across the United States to grow a more inclusive middle class and provide workers the opportunity to come together for the purpose of mutual advancement, the dignity of workers, respect, and the fair compensation they deserve.
The executive order can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/04/26/executive-order-on-worker-organizing-and-empowerment/
The White House Fact Sheet can be found here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/26/fact-sheet-executive-order-establishing-the-white-house-task-force-on-worker-organizing-and-empowerment/
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