Business associations and conservative groups complain that they have not been invited to a major forum on labor issues and the American worker, so they’re going to hold a party of their own.
The White House event, called the “Summit on Worker Voice,” is set for Oct. 7 and will bring together “workers, employers, unions, organizers and other advocates and experts” to “highlight the value of collective bargaining.”
Exactly who will be appearing is not clear, though the announcements indicate that President Obama and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez will host it. A Labor Department spokesman did not respond to a request for a list of participants.
The top groups that represent employers, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have not been invited, leading business groups to assume that event will be little more than an advertisement for unions.
“We weren’t surprised that we were not invited to the meeting, given that we are on opposite sides from the White House and unions on most labor issues, but we hope that there is at least an honest debate about the cost and benefits of new regulations and the true causes of union decline,” Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s senior vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits, told the Washington Examiner.
An August announcement by Perez for the event states that, “History has shown that there is a correlation between a healthy middle class and a robust labor movement.” He also claims that there is an “inverse relationship” between income inequality and a strong labor movement.
An announcement the same month by Celia Munoz, White House domestic policy adviser, asked people to nominate employers who welcome having unions to attend the event.
“We need the voice of forward-thinking employers who are rejecting the old ‘us v. them’ approach to their employees, instead finding win-win solutions by listening to them,” she said.
Instead, conservative groups are presenting their own counter-programming. The Heritage Foundation will host a “Summit on Workers’ Empowerment” on Tuesday, the day before the White House event.
James Sherk, labor policy analyst for the conservative nonprofit, said the White House event likely will feature workers claiming that lack of union representation is holding them back. The Heritage event will focus on other problems.
“A far greater problem for many workers is excessive government licensing. One-third of all jobs in the U.S. economy now require a government license to perform. This prevents many Americans from accepting jobs they could excel at,” Sherk said. The regulations tend to hit lower-income workers the most, as they are the ones most likely to find it difficult to get the time and money to comply with the requirements, he said.
It is a problem the White House itself has acknowledged. In February, it proposed that the Labor Department budget include $15 million to “help a consortia of states identify, explore and address areas where licensing requirements create barriers to labor market entry.” The Senate version of the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations bill, which passed its committee in June, contained $7.5 million to address the issue.
Among those attending the Heritage event will be Mike Burton, a Chattanooga, Tenn., autoworker who successfully organized his coworkers to oppose a bid by the United Auto Workers to unionize their Volkswagen plant in 2014.
Others will include Belen Solano, a California farmworker fighting an attempt by the United Farm Workers to organize her employer’s company based on a vote its workers held two decades ago. Almost none of those workers remain at the company.
Republican lawmakers will be holding events as well. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, will hold a hearing on reining in the National Labor Relations Board, the main federal labor law enforcement agency, on Tuesday. Republicans argue the board, which under Obama has a Democratic majority, has overstepped its authority to advance unions’ interests.
A spokeswoman for the committee said the timing was coincidental, a result of Tuesday being the first open day in their schedule.
