2020 Candidate Bernie Sanders Releases Plan to Strengthen Union Membership

The Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, on Wednesday issued a plan to significantly increase the number of US union members.

The radical Vermont Independents proposal will facilitate union membership, end the so-called right-to-work laws favored by Republicans and ban the replacement of striking workers, his campaign said Wednesday. It would also prevent federal contracts with companies that pay workers less than $ 15 an hour, outsource jobs, or discourage workers from forming unions, among other measures.

As part of the plan, Sanders would aim to double union membership by the end of his first term in January 2025. In his view, this would increase the wages and benefits of American workers who saw money spilling disproportionately into companies and their leaders.

Sanders' move comes as more than 20 Democratic presidential candidates struggle to gain support from politically influential unions. He published it before a speech later Wednesday at an AFL-CIO event in Iowa, which will hold the first nomination contest for the Democratic presidency in February.

The union leaders pushed the candidates to publish their work plans, because the Democrats have courted the groups to get their approval. Mary Kay Henry, who heads the Employees International Union Service – one of the country's largest – will deliver a speech Wednesday urging "every presidential candidate of 2020 to issue a detailed plan explaining how it will be possible for all workers to join a union ". While union political influence has diminished with all members, Democrats still view organizations as essential pillars of support.

Last year, only 10.5% of US salaried workers were unionized, compared to 20.1% in 1983, according to the Labor Department. At 7.7%, Iowa had a lower membership rate than the country as a whole.

Democrats are also fighting for a position in several early-voting states with a larger union presence than Iowa, including California (14.7% of members) and Nevada (13.9% of members). ).

Sanders' plan should also:

• Create what his campaign called a "sectoral bargaining system" that sets standards in entire industries, rather than individual companies.
• Ensure that federal workers have the right to strike
• Prevent companies from making workers "independent contractors" or "supervisors"
• Require companies to transfer the savings resulting from the transition to Sanders' proposal entitled "Medicare for All" proposed by existing plans negotiated by unions to workers, in the form of "Medicare for All". salaries and benefits.
• Keep union-sponsored health providers available to members

Sanders lobbied to insure all Americans through a single payer plan, run by the government. The Democratic presidential candidates who criticized his proposal have partly argued that it would hurt union members because they would lose the health benefits they had negotiated.

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