Harris, Labor secretary encouraging federal workers to join unions

Vice President Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh are set to announce new guidelines on Wednesday to encourage more federal workers to join unions and to encourage collective bargaining in the federal workplace. 

Harris and Walsh will announce two executive actions, one for new hires and one for current employees, during a White House event with federal workers from across the U.S., according to a White House official. 

The federal government has more than 2.1 million non-postal employees and is the largest employer in the U.S. Of the more than 2.1 million federal employees, fewer than 20 percent overall are union members. 

Through the executive actions, the government will be required to include bargaining unit status and union affiliation of bargaining unit jobs in job opportunity announcements and allow unions to participate in orientation sessions for new bargaining unit employees.

The government will also be required to communicate current employee rights, including employees’ rights to join a union and how to contact their unions. 

Harris and Walsh will also be joined by Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja for the announcement on Wednesday.

“Not all employees may realize they are included in a bargaining unit or know how to contact their union representative. To facilitate consistent understanding of employee rights, OPM is releasing guidance to federal agencies to enhance communications by agencies to federal employees about their right to join a union and the ways they can engage with their union,” a White House official said in a statement. 

Harris is the chair of the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, and Walsh is the task force’s vice chair.