PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris is coming to Philadelphia on Tuesday to speak about labor organizing and collective bargaining, part of the White House’s push to prioritize blue-collar workers.
Harris, who leads a Biden administration task force on labor issues, and Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh will meet Tuesday afternoon with union leaders at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 19 training center on the Delaware River waterfront. The vice president will address union members later, and she’ll be joined by other elected officials including Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Mayor Jim Kenney.
The visit is the latest trip outside Washington for Harris and Walsh, the former Boston mayor who once led a union himself. They’ve been meeting union workers across the country, including Google contractors in Pittsburgh and plumbers in Ohio.
On Tuesday, Harris will promote the work of the task force, which in February drafted a report that included dozens of recommendations to make to make it easier for workers to organize and bargain collectively. Among them are creating mechanisms to ensure federal money isn’t spent on union-busting drives, and for about a dozen agencies to prioritize federal grants that promote union jobs.
Harris will also announce a new program by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration aimed at protecting workers from heat-related injuries, by allowing inspectors to proactively examine workplaces for such hazards.
The vice president’s visit to Philadelphia comes during a critical time for the White House and its economic agenda, as the Biden administration tries to tout the benefits of Democratic policies for the middle class — but as historic levels of inflation and high gas prices threaten the post-pandemic recovery.
On Tuesday morning, a new government report showed consumer prices were 8.5% higher in March than they were at the same time last year, a new 40-year high.
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