Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is proposing a top-to-bottom rewrite of federal labor laws to make it easier for unions, whose support she needs to gain the nomination, to bring in new members and increase dues revenue. The Massachusetts Democrat argues that her proposal, released Thursday, would empower workers and raise wages.
Her plan includes banning all state right to-work laws, giving workers in 27 states no option but to join unions or pay union fees if their workplace is organized; allowing union organizing by the “card check” method; requiring all drivers for rideshare services, such as Uber and Lyft, to become employees rather than independent contractors; making it easier to sue franchising corporations for workplace violations by their franchisees; allowing illegal immigrants to sue companies for back wages; allowing graduate students to unionize; and making it easier for public sector unions to demand a cut of Medicaid funds paid to home healthcare workers, among numerous other changes.
“Even as corporate profits have soared, working families are hanging on by their fingernails. I’ve got a plan for the most progressive and comprehensive agenda for workers since the New Deal,” Warren tweeted.
Warren’s plan would requiring expanding the National Labor Relations Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the three main laws covering workplace rights and protections. Congressional approval would be required to amend all three laws.
Labor is a major player in Democratic Party politics. Unions overall poured an estimated $219 million into the last presidential election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of that, 88% was either donated to Democrats or spent on their behalf. Only 12% of union spending benefited Republicans. The top contenders for the Democratic nomination are all vying for labor’s backing in the 2020 election. Rival candidate Bernie Sanders, a Vermont senator, issued a similarly aggressive pro-labor plan in August, intended to double labor’s membership.
Mary Kay Henry, president of the 2 million-member Service Employees International Union, praised the candidate’s proposal. “Glad to see @ewarren plan’s to overhaul America’s broken labor laws, empower workers to organize millions at a time, allow innovation in cities & states, and use public $ to support good, union jobs,” she tweeted.
Warren would use re-writing the NLRA to invalidate all state right-to-work laws, which prohibit workers from being forced to join a union or pay one a regular fee. Unions hate the laws, currently found in 27 states, because they result in membership losses and drained treasuries as workers opt out. Warren’s announcement erroneously puts the figure at 28 states.
“These state laws deprive union treasuries of funds needed to represent workers, bargain contracts, and organize new workers,” Warren said.
The plan would also allow unions to organize workplaces through the card check method, so-called because it would force a company to accept a union if it presents cards it claims are signed by more than 50% of the workforce. Under current law, companies can request the federal government hold a secret ballot election to ensure the union does have the workers’ support. Card check would eliminate those elections, a situation business groups argue would invite fraudulent claims of support.
Warren’s proposal includes a national version of the law passed last month by California that requires gig economy companies such as Uber and Lyft to stop classifying their workers as contractors rather than employees. A contractor is treated like an independent company and is therefore not eligible for most benefits and protections extended to workers under federal law, such as the minimum wage and mandatory overtime pay. Gig economy companies argue this arrangement affords great freedom to the drivers, who get to set their own schedules and work as much or as little as they want. Warren claimed it was a way for company to deny benefits to workers.
“I will also push to make worker misclassification itself a violation of labor law. And I will use every administrative tool available to end worker misclassification from the day I enter office,” Warren said.
The candidate promised to restore the Obama administration-era definition of “joint employer,” the legal definition for when one company can be held liable for workplace violations at another company. Traditionally, this only applied when a business had “direct control” over another’s policies. The Obama administration sought to change that to the much vaguer “indirect control,” part of a bid to help unions organize fast food chains like McDonald’s. Courts and the Trump administration have restored the earlier standard.
Warren promised to expand the rights of federal government workers, ensuring they could get paid regularly even when the government is shut down and ensure the right of federal employees to do union work while still being paid for their regular job. The Trump administration has attempted to crack down on this practice, known as “official time,” arguing it is often abused by unions.
The candidate would also allow federal employees to strike, something all Democratic presidents since Jimmy Carter have opposed on the grounds that it would be too disruptive and grant unions too much power over the government.
Warren would back up troubled union pensions by creating a new Treasury Department agency to provide taxpayer-backed loans to endangered multiemployer pension plans. Similar House-passed legislation, known as the Butch-Lewis Act, was estimated by Congressional Budget Office to cost $55 billion over 30 years.
