Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Hari and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will host a second meeting of the White House labor taskforce on Thursday. This group consists of top cabinet secretaries who are trying to increase union membership, according to two sources with knowledge.

This group will be discussing recommendations for the President Joe Biden’s April report on how existing policies could promote labor organizing within the federal government. It also discusses new policies and regulatory issues. According to a White House official who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the administration, the report will be due late October.

According to a White House official, Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary of Homeland Security, Gina Raimondo Secretary of Commerce, Wally Adeyemo Deputy Treasury Secretary, and Secretary of Interior Debhaaland will attend the meeting.

You can also see Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as well Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm virtually.

According to a White House official, the taskforce’s progress will be discussed. The group will also discuss important recommendations for executive actions that they have in their report. The group will discuss how the government can use its authority as an employer in order to support worker organizing.

Harris addressed union organizers at the Pittsburgh taskforce’s first field meeting in June. He spoke about his campaign to improve union membership and to remove barriers to organizing.

The White House has estimated that between 1979-1920, American workers were 14.9 percentage point less represented in a union. According to the White House, American workers have lost $200 billion per year in wages, and other benefits that they would have received under their union contracts.

President Biden’s administration may be the most overtly pro-union since Harry Truman left the Oval Office nearly 70 years ago, labor leaders and outside analysts have said, citing actions that have put unions at the center of policy — viewing them as vehicles not only to rebuild middle-class jobs but also to address climate change and racial and gender inequity.

An attempt to organize workers at an Amazon facility (NASDAQ:), in Alabama, failed disastrously earlier this year. A U.S. labor board official suggested that the historic union election be rerun in August.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has died. Trumka had close ties and helped shape Biden’s ambitious jobs plans and infrastructure projects. It is also an obstacle for American labor.