Juliana Kaplan
Mon, November 7, 2022
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) tours an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) training facility on September 7 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California.
Harris will meet with United Farm Workers and dial in to a Unite Here get out the vote call.
Unions are popular right now among Americans, making them a rarity among many issues.
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday to discuss the Biden administration's continued support for workers, according to a White House official.
Harris, who has her own union and activism roots, has emerged as one of several high-level members of the Biden administration on the frontlines of meeting with workers and supporting the resurgent labor movement.
Harris will meet with leaders from United Farm Workers in Los Angeles, along with joining a Unite Here call focused on turning out the vote in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
UFW recently staged a 24-day long march in an effort to get California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign onto legislation that would ease the process for farm workers to unionize. Newsom eventually signed on to an amended version of the bill. Unite Here represents service workers across restaurants, hotels, and other leisure and hospitality businesses.
Harris has hit the road ahead of the midterms, bolstering mostly female candidates and focusing on reproductive rights as Democrats pull out all of their stops to try and fend off a potential red wave. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders.
Harris chairs the Biden administration's task force on strengthening unions and union membership. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The president made an appearance at that event, which Alex Speidel, a lead organizer with United Paizo Workers/CWA, told Insider was "an unbelievable surprise."
The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. One of Biden's first actions in office was to dismiss Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, Biden installed Jennifer Abruzzo, an NLRB veteran who had been serving as a union-side lawyer for the Communication Workers of America. Abruzzo has already made her mark on the agency, working towards ending the practice of mandatory anti-union meetings. Petitions for union representation are up 58% in the first 9 months of fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, according to the NLRB.
"President Joe Biden and I are determined to lead the most pro-union administration in America's history," Harris said in April remarks. "Unions negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for millions of workers around our country."
Organized labor has emerged as a rare issue that Americans seem to largely be on board with. Unions are at their highest approval level since 1965, according to Gallup, with 71% of Americans approving of them.
That comes as Americans' confidence in everything from religion to Congress have wavered. Another Gallup poll from June surveyed Americans about their confidence in 16 major institutions, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Only organized labor did not see a drop in confidence from the year prior.
Now, as Democrats head into the uncertain midterms the administration is again turning towards organized labor.
Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said. "There's an inherent link to labor unions and the members that compose those unions, and just the critical importance of this moment to recognize what's at stake in this election and the progress that the administration has made, but that we need to continue to build on."
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday in California.
Harris will meet with United Farm Workers and dial in to a Unite Here get out the vote call.
Unions are popular right now among Americans, making them a rarity among many issues.
Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with union leaders on Monday to discuss the Biden administration's continued support for workers, according to a White House official.
Harris, who has her own union and activism roots, has emerged as one of several high-level members of the Biden administration on the frontlines of meeting with workers and supporting the resurgent labor movement.
Harris will meet with leaders from United Farm Workers in Los Angeles, along with joining a Unite Here call focused on turning out the vote in swing states like Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
UFW recently staged a 24-day long march in an effort to get California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign onto legislation that would ease the process for farm workers to unionize. Newsom eventually signed on to an amended version of the bill. Unite Here represents service workers across restaurants, hotels, and other leisure and hospitality businesses.
Harris has hit the road ahead of the midterms, bolstering mostly female candidates and focusing on reproductive rights as Democrats pull out all of their stops to try and fend off a potential red wave. Along the way, according to a White House official, she is prioritizing meeting with local labor leaders.
Harris chairs the Biden administration's task force on strengthening unions and union membership. In May, Harris — along with co-chair Marty Walsh, Biden's Secretary of Labor — welcomed union organizers from the likes of Starbucks and Amazon to the White House. The president made an appearance at that event, which Alex Speidel, a lead organizer with United Paizo Workers/CWA, told Insider was "an unbelievable surprise."
The Biden administration has made clear its intentions to embrace organized labor. One of Biden's first actions in office was to dismiss Peter Robb, the Trump-appointed general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board. Instead, Biden installed Jennifer Abruzzo, an NLRB veteran who had been serving as a union-side lawyer for the Communication Workers of America. Abruzzo has already made her mark on the agency, working towards ending the practice of mandatory anti-union meetings. Petitions for union representation are up 58% in the first 9 months of fiscal year 2022 compared to fiscal year 2021, according to the NLRB.
"President Joe Biden and I are determined to lead the most pro-union administration in America's history," Harris said in April remarks. "Unions negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for millions of workers around our country."
Organized labor has emerged as a rare issue that Americans seem to largely be on board with. Unions are at their highest approval level since 1965, according to Gallup, with 71% of Americans approving of them.
That comes as Americans' confidence in everything from religion to Congress have wavered. Another Gallup poll from June surveyed Americans about their confidence in 16 major institutions, including the presidency and the Supreme Court. Only organized labor did not see a drop in confidence from the year prior.
Now, as Democrats head into the uncertain midterms the administration is again turning towards organized labor.
Harris "has been focused on reaching women, young people, and communities of color," a White House official said. "There's an inherent link to labor unions and the members that compose those unions, and just the critical importance of this moment to recognize what's at stake in this election and the progress that the administration has made, but that we need to continue to build on."
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