In today’s News & Commentary, President Biden signs a “Good Jobs EO,” Eric Blanc argues the labor movement should learn from the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, and the New York City Comptroller launches an Employer Wall of Shame.

Surrounded by union presidents in Michigan on Friday, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies to incorporate pro-union standards in their new manufacturing, infrastructure, and climate change investments. The Executive Order on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers calls for agencies to, for example, give preference to projects with better employee benefits and who agree to be neutral towards and voluntarily recognize unions. The standards will be tied to the spending of funds from the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. “With this Executive Order, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all Federal agencies should look to prioritize,” the White House said in a fact sheet. President Biden repeatedly criticized former President and current candidate Donald Trump during his speech announcing the “Good Jobs EO,” daring him to repeal the new policy and saying “Trump would much rather cross the picket line than walk one[.]“

How can the labor movement ensure it continues to grow? Eric Blanc, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, argues that labor unions should adopt the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee’s (EWOC) strategic innovations as part of their organizing models. These innovations include developing a distributed organizing model that relies on volunteer organizers and digital tools rather than staff union organizers. These EWOC volunteers provide guidance to organizing drives, hold trainings, and connect them with unions to affiliate with. EWOC initially forged this approach amidst the beginnings of the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby labor organizers from Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and the United Electrical Workers (UE) came together to support the many workers facing workplace safety and other issues. Association of Flight Attendants president Sara Nelson agrees with Blanc, saying “There are millions of unorganized workers right now who don’t have access to organizing resources, don’t have the support of a traditional union, and don’t know how to take that first step towards building working-class power… by offering free trainings and organizing guides, and building an army of thousands of volunteers who can offer one-to-one support to any worker in any industry, anywhere in the country, EWOC is playing a crucial role in labor’s revival.” Blanc concludes that “EWOC’s most important lessons for the broader labor movement are threefold: plant organizing seeds widely; support any worker who wants to organize; and lean as much as possible on volunteers.”

Lastly, the Office of the New York City Comptroller has launched an Employer Wall of Shame as well as a violations dashboard tracking the city’s worst employment and labor law offenders. “When companies steal their workers wages, commit unfair labor practices, or put workers’ lives at risk, the public should be able to clearly see it,” said Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running for mayor this year. Among the companies on the inaugural Employer Wall of Shame are Amazon, Chipotle, Uber, and Lyft, as well as three home healthcare services companies. “This data will be instrumental in union organizing drives, procurement of public goods, and potential impact litigation,” Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union, said of the dashboard. “It will also be useful to everyday New Yorkers who can now look up companies that they are interested in working with to see if that employer is fair to their employees before accepting a job offer.”