Kamala Harris Tells The Nation, "This Is the Beginning of the Next Era of the Labor Movement"

[demmiblue]

In an exclusive interview with The Nation’s John Nichols, the vice president recalls her youth on picket lines and explains why it’s so vital to eliminate barriers to organizing.

Seventy-one percent of Americans now have a favorable view of unions. That figure is comparable to the level of support for labor in the 1930s, when the movement saw explosive growth. This burgeoning enthusiasm for union thrills Vice President Kamala Harris who, as the leader of the Biden administration’s concerted effort to remove barriers to organizing workers and bargaining contracts, is determined to clear the way for a dramatic renewal of America’s labor movement.

“I do believe that this is the beginning of the next era of the labor movement—the modern labor movement,” said Harris when she and I spoke Friday afternoon. To a far greater extent than many Americans are aware, the vice president knows her way around the labor movement. As the daughter of an activist mother who brought her along to join picket lines, and as a product of the rough-and-tumble politics of one of America’s great union towns, San Francisco, she is informed and engaged with labor issues. And she displays as much passion as President Joe Biden has for transforming the character of labor relations in a country where unions have been let down by both Republican and Democratic administrations. “The president and I were talking at lunch today about this,” Harris said. “We are so proud—and I hope I don’t give off any bravado in saying this—but we are very proud that we will end up being the most pro-labor administration probably ever.”

That’s a bold prediction at a point when union membership in the United States stands at 10.3 percent, less than a third of what it was in its heyday of the 1950s. Yet Harris is confident that the work that she and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh are doing on the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment will bear fruit. Union leaders praise the project, which has yielded nearly 70 recommendations for making it easier for workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining—many of which are already being implemented. “Every union person that you would talk to would tell you the same thing: that we’re pinching ourselves at how seriously the Biden-Harris administration takes these issues,” explained United Steelworkers Vice President Roxanne Brown, a key member of the AFL-CIO executive council. “What the vice president and Secretary Walsh are doing right now is huge. It’s historic.”

How the Pandemic Created a Union Moment

The progress of labor is never simply about the actions of presidents and vice presidents. It is determined by multiple factors, including the maelstrom of the times that confront an administration and a country. Harris understands this. Indeed, when I asked about the latest Gallup poll, which found Americans are more supportive of unions than at any time since the 1960s, she pointed to a factor that gets insufficient notice: the coronavirus pandemic.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-labor-movement/

[Layzeebeaver]

1. This. This is her ticket to the presidency.

Organising a new labour movement must be a focus for the us, the next generation, and their children.
Democratic capitalism must be on the table.

[Kath2]

2. I love her.

Anyone who pisses off the radical right as much as she does should be commended.

[malthaussen]

3. I hope Reagan is spinning in his grave. n/t

[Hekate]

4. This is a really impressive article. DUers have asked what she's doing with her time, & this is it

A century and more ago it took real misery in the workplace to start the union movement, and blood, lives, sweat and leadership to birth it.

We forgot. Ronald Reagan broke the back of the unions to a combination of conservative cheers and apathy.

Now once again we seem to have a critical mass of worker misery. All we need is leadership from the bottom up and, need it be said, leadership in government.

[burrowowl]

5. Go Unions!