Biden’s Pro-Worker Agenda in Action

Within one week of taking office, President Joe Biden’s administration has taken sweeping action that centers on and benefits working people. Specifically, the Biden administration has taken direct action with regard to wages, worker protections, and union organizing. In particular, the Biden administration has issued executive orders, initiated regulatory reviews, withdrawn harmful opinion letters and proposed rules, and terminated known anti-worker officials within the federal government, replacing them with individuals who have shown a deep commitment to protecting workers.

Rolling Back Anti-Union Executive Orders

In 2018, former President Donald Trump’s administration issued a series of executive orders making it easier to fire federal workers and restricting the scope of collective bargaining. Last year, Trump also signed an executive order establishing a new job classification of government employees. Biden wasted no time rescinding all three anti-union orders and the reclassification order. In doing so, the Biden administration stated, “It is the policy of the United States to encourage union organizing and collective bargaining.”

Increasing Wages

By executive order, Biden also instructed the Office of Personnel Management to develop recommendations to federal agencies that would ensure that government workers, contractors and subcontractors are paid $15 an hour and provided emergency leave. This order alone could bring wage increases to more than 720,000 workers in the United States.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has withdrawn three anti-worker opinion letters dealing with interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the person or entity that requested the letter. The three opinion letters that were withdrawn and may not be relied upon are:

FLSA2021-4: Addressing whether a restaurant may institute a tip pool under the FLSA that includes both servers, for whom the employer takes a tip credit, as well as hosts and hostesses, for whom a tip credit is not taken.
FLSA2021-8: Addressing whether certain distributors of a manufacturer’s food products are employees or independent contractors under the FLSA.
FLSA2021-9: Addressing whether requiring tractor-trailer truck drivers to implement safety measures required by law constitutes control by the motor carrier for purposes of their status as employees or independent contractors under the FLSA, and whether certain owner-operators are properly classified as independent contractors.

Enforcing Worker Protections

Biden issued an Executive Order on Protecting Worker and Health Safety, directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce workplace safety rules and implement enforceable standards on employers. Workers on the front line know all too well that OSHA has been largely absent in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent worker deaths.

During the height of the pandemic, the Trump administration sought, through rulemaking, to allow poultry processing facilities to increase the maximum number of chickens processed per minute. This increase, on an already taxed workforce, would have led to more workplace injuries. Immediately after taking office, the Biden administration withdrew the rule.

Another executive order protects the federal workforce by requiring all federal workers and visitors to federal facilities to wear masks.

Through another executive order, Biden directed the DOL to clarify that workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that will jeopardize their health and still qualify for unemployment.

Biden also issued an Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation. This order protects workers from being treated differently in the terms and conditions of their employment because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

Elevating Pro-Worker Leadership

Biden has replaced Eugene Scalia with longtime union member and former Mayor of Boston Marty Walsh as Secretary of the Department of Labor. Biden also selected California Labor Secretary Julie Su as Deputy Secretary of the DOL. At the National Labor Relations Board, Biden fired longtime union buster Peter Robb as General Counsel and his second in command, former management-side lawyer Alice Stock. Jim Frederick, a former United Steelworkers safety official, has been named acting chief of OSHA. Sharon Block, another union ally, was named to an important White House regulatory post. More pro-worker appointments are expected to come in the days ahead.

People