E-Alert: White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment Issue Report

On February 7, 2022, the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment publicly issued its report and recommendations to the president. The Task Force was created through an executive order issued by President Biden in April 2021 that directed the Task Force to make recommendations on how the federal government’s existing policies, programs and practices could be used to promote worker organizing and collective bargaining. Unsurprisingly, the report’s recommendations are pro-union.

Specifically, the report identified a number of categories, that its nearly seventy recommendations fall under, to provide examples and strategies for the use of existing Executive Branch authority to remove barriers to union organizing in the public and private sectors. Ultimately, the Task Force’s recommendations are designed to:

(1) position the federal government as a model actor;

(2) use the federal government’s authority to support worker empowerment/organizing; and

(3) use the federal government’s purchasing and spending power to support workers who are organizing and pro-worker employers.

These recommendations are not only aimed at encouraging government and public sector union growth but are also aimed at implementing requirements for the federal government to contract more with unionized employers. These initiatives directly coincide with President Biden’s February 4, 2022, executive order on the use of Project Labor Agreements for federal construction projects. This executive order directs federal agencies to require Project Labor Agreements on federal construction projects of $35 million or more. This means if you are contractor or subcontractor in the construction industry and want to be awarded a contract on such a project, you may have to sign a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with a union.

If you have any questions regarding this report, please contact one of our Labor and Employment Attorneys at 501-371-9999 or by email (info@cgwg.com).