Amy for America
For Immediate Release: September 29, 2019

Senator Klobuchar’s Plan to Stand Up for Our Workers and Unions

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Today, ahead of her remarks to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Presidential Forum in Detroit, Senator Amy Klobuchar released her plan to protect the rights of workers and strengthen our unions. 

As the granddaughter of an iron ore miner and the daughter of a union teacher and a union newspaperman, Senator Klobuchar knows that unions give Americans and their families the opportunities they need to succeed. As President, she will bring one clear but simple guide to the White House: When unions are strong, our economy is strong.

Senator Klobuchar has stood up for the right for all workers to join a union and to collectively bargain. In the Senate, she has strongly supported legislation to protect the right to organize and make it easier for workers to join a union, including Senator Murray’s Protecting the Right to Organize Act. She has stood with workers time and time again in the airline, health care, hotel and building trades industries as well as our public sector workers, and she has been a leader in the fight to stop foreign steel dumping and support America’s steelworkers.

Senator Klobuchar has also been a champion for protecting multi-employer pensions. In 2015, she worked with retired Teamsters to protect the Central States Pension Plan against proposed reductions in pension benefits. She also joined Senator Sherrod Brown to introduce the Butch Lewis Act to ensure retirees can keep the pensions they have earned.

As President, Senator Klobuchar’s plan to support our unions and stand up for workers’ rights includes:

Protecting the right to organize and collectively bargain
  • Advancing historic labor law reform including by passing Senator Murray’s Protecting the Right to Organize Act. This legislation -- which Senator Klobuchar has co-sponsored -- will strengthen the National Labor Relations Act, increase penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights, prevent interference in union elections, ban companies from permanently replacing workers who participate in a strike, and prevent employers from misclassifying their employees.
  • Undertaking a close review of laws regulating labor unions. Senator Klobuchar will work with her Secretary of Labor to make sure that the laws that regulate labor unions aren’t used to undermine organized labor.
  • Rolling back so-called Right to Work laws by repealing the provision of the Taft–Hartley Act that affirms states’ authority to pass these laws. 
  • Mandating public disclosure when employers hire consultants to counter workers' union organizing efforts.
  • Nominating pro-labor members to the National Labor Review Board who will support our workers. 
  • Implementing and enforcing policies that ensure fair pay and safe workplaces for federal contractors.
  • Consulting with our unions when developing regulations around new technologies and the future of work, and ensuring the production of new technologies are performed by American union workers.
Standing up for public sector unions
  • Immediately rescinding Executive Orders signed by President Trump that severely restrict federal workers’ rights, including the right to collectively bargain.
  • Passing Senator Hirono’s Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act -- which Senator Klobuchar has co-sponsored -- to guarantee public employees their right to organize and bargain collectively.
  • Guaranteeing back pay to our federal contractors during government shutdowns.
Delivering for our workers
  • Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 to ensure that we have a minimum wage that reflects our values. Senator Klobuchar will not only raise the minimum wage but enforce it by taking on wage theft and encouraging responsible contracting.
  • Launching a bold infrastructure plan that maintains Davis-Bacon wage standards. She will continue to support project labor agreements and she will ensure that infrastructure projects use materials produced in the United States through strong Buy America provisions.
  • Guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of paid family leave and allowing workers to earn paid sick leave.
  • Investing in workers through robust training and apprenticeships with a focus on creating career opportunities in construction for women and people of color. Senator Klobuchar has also committed to expanding apprenticeship opportunities and benefits with the goal of doubling the number of apprenticeships to over a million by the end of her first term
  • Passing legislation to ensure retirees can keep the pensions they have earned. Senator Klobuchar believes that our country must honor the promise made to workers in multiemployer pension plans and that the pension our workers have earned through their decades of hard work should be there when they retire.
  • Ensuring our unions have a strong voice in her administration when it comes to international trade agreements. Senator Klobuchar supports fair trade agreements that include strong labor and environmental standards and as President she will work to make sure that those provisions are enforced.  
  • Passing legislation to prevent employers from using an employee’s salary history to determine wages.
  • Reinstating joint employer rules that recognize the responsibilities of joint employers to their employees.
  • Making sure that health and social service workers have the workplace protections they deserve.
  • Restoring the Obama Administration’s overtime rules to expand overtime pay to millions of workers.
  • Preventing the outsourcing of jobs overseas by passing and signing into law Senator Klobuchar’s Removing Incentives for Outsourcing Act closing tax loopholes on corporations’ overseas earnings.
 
In addition, Senator Klobuchar has laid out a plan for her first 100 days that includes executive action she can take immediately to support our workers and our unions:

  • Raise the minimum wage for federal contractors to $15. In line with her goal of increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, Senator Klobuchar will increase the minimum wage for federal contractors to that threshold.
  • Strengthen minimum wage enforcement efforts. Senator Klobuchar will strengthen enforcement and expand investigations to make sure that are wage laws are properly enforced and that workers are able to recover back pay when the government rules in their favor. 
  • Protect federal employee labor rights. Senator Klobuchar will immediately rescind Executive Orders signed by President Trump that severely restrict federal workers’ rights, including the right to collectively bargain.
  • Protect health care workers’ right to organize. Senator Klobuchar will rescind an anti-union regulatory change enacted by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that prevents union dues from being deducted from Medicaid-funded paychecks of home health care workers.
  • Restore overtime rules. Senator Klobuchar will restore the Obama Administration’s overtime rules to expand overtime pay to millions of workers.
  • Stop the use of noncompete agreements to stifle competition and hurt workers. Senator Klobuchar will instruct the FTC to initiate a rulemaking addressing anti-competitive noncompete agreements that prevent low-wage workers from pursuing new employment opportunities. 
  • Prevent misclassification of workers. Senator Klobuchar will rescind the Department of Labor guidance under the Trump Administration that makes it easier for businesses to misclassify workers, which can result in reduced benefits, lower wages, discrimination, diluted worker protections, and abdications of legal responsibilities.
  • Put rules in place to prevent pay discrimination. The Trump Administration has tried to block rules that require large companies to disclose what they pay employees by sex, race, and ethnicity in an effort to prevent pay discrimination. Senator Klobuchar would end the Trump Administration’s legal efforts to prevent the rule from taking effect.
  • Expand apprenticeships. Senator Klobuchar will direct her Secretary of Labor to analyze the use of apprenticeships for in-demand occupations and to launch a nationwide campaign to expand apprenticeship opportunities and their benefits.
  • Reinstate joint employer rules that protect workers’ rights. While the Trump Administration attempted to rewrite the “joint employment” standard, Senator Klobuchar will restore guidance recognizing the responsibilities of joint employers to their employees.
  • Restore disclosure rules that counter workers’ organizing efforts. Senator Klobuchar will restore a rule rescinded by President Trump mandating public disclosure when employers hire consultants to counter workers' union organizing efforts.
  • Ensure fair labor practices and safe workplaces for federal contractors. Senator Klobuchar will restore policies ensuring fair pay and safe workplaces for federal contractors.
 
###