| Federal Register Vol. 86, No. 81 Thursday, April 29, 2021 |
Presidential Documents |
Title 3—
The President
Executive Order 14025 of April 26, 2021
Worker Organizing and Empowerment
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy and Findings. The National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 151) proclaims that the policy of the United States is to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining and to promote equality of bargaining power between employers and employees. In the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (5 U.S.C. 7101(a)(1)), the Congress found that “experience in both private and public employment indicates that the statutory protection of the right of employees to organize, bargain collectively, and participate through labor organizations of their own choosing in decisions which affect them . . . safeguards the public interest, . . . contributes to the effective conduct of public business, and . . . facilitates and encourages the amicable settlements of disputes between employees and their employers involving conditions of employment.”
In the past few decades, the Federal Government has not used its full authority to promote and implement this policy of support for workers organizing unions and bargaining collectively with their employers. During this period, economic change in the United States and globally, technological developments, and the failure to modernize Federal organizing and labor-management relations laws to respond appropriately to the reality found in American workplaces, have made worker organizing exceedingly difficult.
The result has been a steady decline in union density in the United States and the loss of worker power and voice in workplaces and communities across the country. This decline has had a host of negative consequences for American workers and the economy, including weakening and shrinking America’s middle class. Meanwhile, some workers have been excluded from opportunities to organize unions and bargain collectively with their employers by law or practice, and so have never been able to build meaningful economic power or have a voice in their workplaces.
Confirming the policies declared in Federal labor laws, substantial evidence shows that union membership increases wages, the likelihood of receiving employer-provided benefits, and job security. Union membership also gives workers the means to build the power to ensure that their voices are heard in their workplaces, their communities, and in the Nation.
Therefore, it is the policy of my Administration to encourage worker organizing and collective bargaining.
Sec. 2. Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. There is hereby established within the Executive Office of the President the Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment (Task Force).
(a) The Vice President shall serve as Chair of the Task Force. In addition to the Vice President, the Task Force shall consist of the following officials or their designees:
- the Secretary of Labor, who shall serve as Vice Chair of the Task Force;
- the Secretary of the Treasury;
- the Secretary of Defense;
- the Secretary of the Interior;
