Joe Biden’s task force to strengthen union membership

President Joe Biden is creating a task force to help promote and strengthen union membership through an executive order on Monday.

The task force, which will be chaired by Vice President Kamala Harris, with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh serving as vice-chair, will focus on helping to bolster union membership and worker organizing and bargaining.

According to the White House, the task force will examine both existing policies and the need for new ones, and report back recommendations within 180 days. Its main focus would include setting up the federal government as a “model employer,” helping to bolster worker organization, especially by increasing power for marginalized workers, and those in industries where organizing is difficult and generally upping the number of workers in unions.

“Since 1935, when the National Labor Relations Act was enacted, the policy of the federal government has been to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining, not to merely allow or tolerate them,” the White House said in a press release. “In the 86 years since the Act was passed, the federal government has never fully implemented this policy.”

The group will also include Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.