Reprinted from The Wall Street Journal by its staff on November 8, 2020.
President-elect Joe Biden promised on the 2020 campaign trail to undo large parts of President Trump’s policies in areas from health care to immigration. He also promised the federal government would play a greater role in combating the coronavirus pandemic.
Much will depend on the makeup of Congress and whether the government remains divided. His more aggressive plans likely wouldn’t pass a Republican-controlled Senate. …
Workplace Safety: Biden has said he would push the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration to establish an emergency standard to address worker safety during a pandemic. Such a standard would require an employer to submit a specific workplace-safety plan to OSHA. …
Trade: Perhaps the biggest difference between a second Trump term and a Biden administration would be trade relations with US allies. Biden says he will woo allies battered by Trump trade sanctions, rethink the use of tariffs and try to create a united front to confront China.
But multilateralism also presents some tough trade-offs. European countries are bound to demand a lifting of steel tariffs imposed by Trump and backed by Biden’s labor allies. …
Biden Campaign Proposes Significant Labor Policy Changes
Reprinted from the Biden 2020 campaign website.
Strong unions built the great American middle class. Everything that defines what it means to live a good life and know you can take care of your family – the 40 hour workweek, paid leave, health care protections, a voice in your workplace – is because of workers who organized unions and fought for worker protections. Because of organizing and collective bargaining, there used to be a basic bargain between workers and their employers in this country that when you work hard, you share in the prosperity your work created.
Today, however, there’s a war on organizing, collective bargaining, unions, and workers. It’s been raging for decades, and it’s getting worse with Donald Trump in the White House. Republican governors and state legislatures across the country have advanced anti-worker legislation to undercut the labor movement and collective bargaining. States have decimated the rights of public sector workers who, unlike private sector workers, do not have federal protections ensuring their freedom to organize and collectively bargain. In the private sector, corporations are using profits to buy back their own shares and increase CEOs’ compensation instead of investing in their workers and creating more good-quality jobs. The results have been predictable: rising income inequality, stagnant real wages, the loss of pensions, exploitation of workers, and a weakening of workers’ voices in our society.
Biden is proposing a plan to grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class – the backbone of the American economy – by strengthening public and private sector unions and helping all workers bargain successfully for what they deserve. …
