Middle Class Task Force
Obama and Biden Launch Middle Class Working Families Task Force
On Friday, January 30th, President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden announced the creation of the Middle Class Task Force, which the White House blog says is "targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America." SEIU Secretary-Treasurer and Change to Win Chair Anna Burger was in attendance at the event today, and issued this statement in support ( read the whole thing here ):
The mandate of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force sends a clear signal of a new government. A government that makes sure working Americans are treated with the dignity and respect at the work place that everyone deserves. A government that understands that rebuilding the American Dream and fixing the economy means creating more than just jobs, it means creating good jobs with a wage that can support a family, benefits that can keep them healthy, and a secure and dignified retirement.
The Obama administration has shown a strong commitment to the needs of working people, and reaffirmed that today. We need to restore the American Dream, and the White House is asking you to submit your own ideas to the Task Force. You can do so by visiting their new website, which has a front banner that declares, "A Strong Middle Class = A Strong America." We couldn't agree more.
There are a total of three additional pro-worker executive orders (on top of the Task Force creation) that Obama will sign, overturning Bush-era policies:
- Require federal contractors (holding contracts above $100,000) to post a balanced notice of their employees' rights under the National Labor Relations Act;
- Require federal service contractors providing services to federal buildings to offer a right of first refusal to the nonsupervisory, nonmanagerial employees of the predecessor contractor for positions for which they were qualified; and
- Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenditures intended to support or deter their employees' exercise of their right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.
As Change to Win
noted in their statement on this victory for workers, these are "further proof that when workers vote for pro-worker candidate, workers win."
For more information, read Biden's Op-Ed in USA Today.
"There'd be no middle class without labor movement:"
Watch Biden talk about the new task force in live coverage from the announcement earlier today: