The Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Monday that her agency’s “report” was the latest step taken by the administration to “increase the importance of labor unions within our economy.”
“It’s the Treasury Department’s first major effort to lay out the rationale for why we think this is so important,” she said.
“Union workers have been the backbone of
America’s middle class
, and yet for too long the contributions of union workers have not been fully appreciated,”
Vice President Harris told reporters Monday. The report comes amid several high-profile
strikes
and labor contract negotiations play out across the country. “Higher workplace safety standards can bring whole industries to their knees.” – Union members improve their communities through heightened civic engagement; they are more likely to vote, donate to charity, and participate in a neighborhood project,” the report reads.
While the Biden administration has
spoken
positively
about unions, it has also notably occasionally worked against them. The administration and Congress intervened at the end of last year to avert a railroad strike
, a move that frustrated many railroad workers.
“A disruption to our nation’s economy and supply chain has been averted. The Senate also voted against the bill which would have provided paid sick leave to all railroad workers. In July, Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters General president, asked that the White House refrain from intervening if unionized UPS employees went on strike. The Teamsters voted last week to ratify their agreement with UPS.
Yet union membership has notably declined in recent decades:
just10.1 percent of wage-earning workers were union members in 2022. This is half what it was back in 1983, when the first membership data were recorded.