By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris said on Thursday a labor report commissioned by President Joe Biden in April on ways existing policies can boost unions and promote labor organizing will be released on Oct.23.
Harris delivered remarks during the second meeting of the White House labor task force, which she leads along with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as vice-chair and a group of cabinet secretaries, that aims to boost union membership in the country. https://reut.rs/3lkm9tZ
“We have made a commitment to ourselves and each other that this is not going to be some report that just sits on the shelf… We are fully committed to the implementation of all the proposals and… acting with haste and a sense of urgency,” Harris said.
She said proposals in the report will “touch every sector of employment.”
Harris also urged passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act, which prohibits employers from holding anti-union meetings and imposes penalties for violating workers’ rights. The House passed the measure in March, but the bill faces long odds in the Senate.
Secretary Walsh, a former union official, said the report will “show an all-of-government approach to worker organizing to address the barriers that many workers face to exercise their right to organize” and also include new collaboration between agencies.
“It will show we are responding to what working people are telling us,” he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler)
