How Joe Biden would strengthen unions

[highplainsdem]

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/25/joe-biden-2020-labor-unions-plan-057991

Former Vice President Joe Biden released a plan Friday to strengthen labor unions. Biden’s proposal would, among other things, give employees more leverage to organize in the workplace, raise the hourly minimum wage to $15 and make it harder for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
How would it work?

Biden’s plan would build on proposals already introduced by House Democrats and would resurrect several Obama-era policies. Biden supports Democratic legislation that would allow employees to unionize by "card check" — the informal collection of authorization forms from a majority within a proposed bargaining unit. Current law gives employers the right to require a formal secret-ballot election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board; Biden’s plan would make card-check the default method, something that unions have long sought.

Biden supports the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, H.R. 2474 (116), which would, among other things, enhance the National Labor Relations Board's power by allowing it to levy punitive fines against employers who violate labor laws; today, the agency is permitted only to collect back pay. House Education and Labor Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) has called the PRO Act “the most comprehensive legislation in recent history to strengthen workers' right to organize and bargain for higher wages, better benefits and safer working conditions.” Businesses oppose the bill, arguing that it would give unions too much power.

Biden pledges to form a “cabinet-level working group“ with representatives from labor unions that would, in the first 100 days of his administration, deliver a plan to “dramatically increase union density and address economic inequality.”

In addition, Biden supports Democratic bills that would establish minimum collective bargaining rights for public-sector employees and would would revive an Obama-era rule requiring additional disclosures for union-busting activities by management. ( Biden might find it difficult to keep the latter promise, given that the rule was blocked by a federal judge in 2016.)

Biden says he would work with Congress to write a stricter law on employee misclassification, the practice of classifying a worker an independent contractor rather than an employee in order to avoid providing various mandatory benefits. Biden's bill mirrors one recently signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom that could dramatically change large sections of the “gig economy,“ such as Uber and Lyft. Biden would also curb the imposition in employee contracts of non-compete clauses and mandatory arbitration agreements that prevent workers from suing their employers for misdeeds such as sexual harassment.

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[mr_lebowski]

1. Thanks for sharing this important info. Perfect use of this forum (nt)

[Cha]

2. Thank you, Joe Biden!

Thanks for this, hpd!

[Thekaspervote]

3. Thx for posting highplainsdem!! Plans that will actually have a chance of becoming law

[Sloumeau]

4. highplainsdem, thanks for posting this. :)

[Gothmog]

5. Fire Fighters for Biden..

Link to tweet