Harris to Host Executives, Workers as White House Courts Labor

Justin Sink
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris will host corporate leaders and union members who work for their companies at the White House on Friday, as part of an effort to encourage corporations to engage with organized labor.

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The meeting comes as the White House has sought to shore up support with unions before President Joe Biden’s expected 2024 reelection campaign, particularly as high-profile clashes between workers and companies like Starbucks Corp., Apple Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. dominate headlines.

Harris will host executives and employees from Ford Motor Co. and the United Auto Workers, as well as Siemens AG and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Other participants include a Microsoft Corp. executive and a video game tester who’s a member of the Communications Workers of America, as well as a representative from Danish power company Orsted AS along with the president of the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will also take part in the gathering.

Earlier this week, Biden addressed an association of firefighters in Washington, and the president unveiled his annual budget proposal on Thursday at a union hall in Philadelphia that serves as a training center for commercial painters.

The White House hopes the Harris meeting will draw attention in particular to how positive relationships between management and labor can prove mutually beneficial – particularly in the clean energy sector, according to a White House official who requested anonymity to discuss the event before it had been publicly announced.

The focus on labor and clean energy comes as the White House has faced repeated criticism from Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk for championing electric vehicles from rival automakers who use union labor. Tesla workers in New York State last month announced a unionization campaign in a test of Musk’s public anti-union stance.

Biden has described organized labor as crucial to his political success, and some allies have pointed to the president’s recent public courting of unions as an indication that he is readying for another election season.

“I told you I was going to be the most pro-union president in history,” Biden said Thursday in Philadelphia. “I kept my promise.”

(Updates with Walsh being at meeting, in fourth paragraph.)

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