As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to make union organizing easier for workers.
His signature legislation to accomplish that goal — the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO Act — died in the Senate after passing the House on a largely party-line vote, with near unanimous Democratic support, in 2021. The legislation would have helped labor unions in several ways, including by expanding the definition of who can be covered by federal labor standards, undercutting "right to work" laws in many states, and banning the use of striker replacements.
With the PRO Act's latest version stalled in Congress, the Biden administration has boosted unions in other ways.
A key lever of influence is the president's ability to appoint members to the National Labor Relations Board, an independent federal agency that decides collective bargaining and workers' rights cases. The board has five members, with the president's party usually exerting a 3-2 majority. (The board now has a 3-1 Democratic majority because of a vacancy.)
One of the board's most important decisions, experts say, came in the "Cemex case," which established a new standard for how employers must respond to a request for union recognition.
In that case, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sued a cement company, alleging that, before a unionization vote, the company had threatened pro-union employees, surveilled workers and restricted employees communicating with union representatives.
The board in August 2023 not only upheld an administrative law judge's ruling to set aside the election results but effectively declared that the union had won the election because of the company's anti-union actions.
The Cemex case is "hugely significant," said Nick Kauzlarich, media relations and digital director for the Economic Policy Institute, a research group that's generally aligned with unions.
Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, agreed with Kauzlarich. "This is not an NLRB we've seen before," Bronfenbrenner said.
Other cases that could benefit unions are winding through the board and the courts. For instance, the NLRB moved to expand the scope of the "joint employer rule," which addresses how company working with contractors are treated under labor law. The board decided that companies that hire contractors would face a greater legal challenge if those contractors committed labor violations or refused to bargain collectively.
Meanwhile, Biden's appointment of Jennifer Abruzzo as the NLRB's general counsel "has been beneficial for workers seeking to form unions," Kauzlarich said. Abruzzo's office has actively pursued charges of unfair labor practice violations.
And, at the Labor Department, the Biden administration has expanded the scope of transparency requirements, known as LM-10 reports, for whether companies are using anti-union "persuader activity" — efforts by companies to convince workers not to form a union.
The administration's continuing inability to pass the PRO Act signals that the most far-reaching pro-organizing policies Biden sought have not been implemented. But Biden's reshaping of the NLRB's membership has produced significant victories for unions seeking greater freedom to organize. We rate this promise a Compromise.