Lynn Sweet from the Sun-Times brings us today's announcement from the transition team:
Today the Obama Transition team announced the President-elect’s intention to form a ‘White House Task Force on Working Families,’ to be chaired by Vice President-elect Joe Biden, effective January 20, 2009. The Task Force will be a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America. The task force will be comprised of top-level administration policy makers, and in addition to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities.
Who will be a part of this task force besides Joe Biden as chair?
Members of the White House Task Force on Working Families will include the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.
The President-elect has set the following goals for the task force:
- Expanding education and lifelong training opportunities
- Improving work and family balance
- Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety
- Helping to protect middle-class and working-family incomes
- Protecting retirement security
The Obama Administration is clearly making working families a big priority. The Employee Free Choice Act is a priority for Labor organizations, but it's going to be tough to find those 60 votes (Franken will certainly help!), so having Biden head up a task force will surely help in that situation. There are obviously many other priorities here, including affordable college education, focus on OSHA and MSHA, and ensuring that workers have a safe way to invest their retirement funds.
Tim Fernholz over at Tapped, the group blog of The American Prospect, sees even more opportunity here:
Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute has been tapped to be Vice President-elect Joe Biden's chief economist and economic policy adviser. Bernstein was an Obama adviser during the campaign, and has done great work at EPI and elsewhere; he also represents the most liberal member of the new administration's announced economic team. He was the guy who coaxed Robert Rubin into voicing his support for deficits and stimulus spending and labor, so I figure he can do alright with Larry Summers.
You can read Bernstein's work here. EPI has provided the transition team with the information they've requested, A rescue plan for Main Street. Perhaps it was this rescue plan that caused Obama to increase the projected size of the planned infrastructure investments from the initially discussed $350 billion from the $700 billion bailout to an $850 Billion Stimulus.
From the Jobs section of that rescue plan we see this:
Since the economy has already lost nearly 2 million jobs since the start of the recession, and since we can expect more job losses in the future, we think this goal should be seen as a minimum target, and we should aim for a package large enough to ensure that we do not miss the target on the low side.
For example, a two-year $600 billion recovery package with a similar split as above—$171 billion each for state assistance, infrastructure, and a payroll tax holiday; and $86 billion for low-income assistance—would create nearly 2.3 million jobs in the first year and 4.5 million jobs over two years. The program would lower the unemployment rate by about 2.9 percentage points. An $850 billion two-year stimulus would create approximately 3.3 million jobs by the end of the first year and 6.4 million jobs by the end of 2010, with a 4 percentage-point drop in the unemployment rate.
A package this size or larger could include the elements above as well as significant down payments on longer-term reforms, including investments in health care information technology, a build-out of broadband Internet access, and investments in energy efficiency. A program of this size is more likely to have an impact of sufficient magnitude to begin to fill the jobs and output gap that we are likely to see next year.
The larger the stimulus, the more jobs we would be able to create. WaPo notes exactly how an $850 billion stimulus might be spent (if we're able to pass that - since Pelosi is apparently already noting that Blue Dogs probably won't go along with it):
A package of that size -- which would include at least $100 billion for cash-strapped state governments and more than $350 billion for investments in infrastructure, alternative energy and other priorities -- is a significant increase over the numbers previously contemplated by Democrats. It would exceed the $700 billion bailout of the U.S. financial system, as well as the annual budget for the Pentagon.
...
At least $350 billion would be devoted to investments, including public works projects such as roads and bridges. That category also would cover funding for alternative energy, health-care technology, school modernization and "protecting the most vulnerable" by expanding unemployment insurance and food-stamp benefits, according to a memo sent to Senate Democrats yesterday by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid's (D-Nev.) chief of staff, as well as other congressional aides.
I recently wrote about how the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will help workers - particularly women. In that diary I provided some suggestions for action items everyone can do. I also provided a response to the argument that Employee Free Choice would actually do more to harm the economy. Please use this information to help educate people on Employee Free Choice. We need as many people to help as we can get.
From that diary:
But Elise, the economy is in recession! We're crashing! We can't pass Employee Free Choice Act now - it's bad for business!
Wrong:
Contrary to business propaganda, unions are good for the economy. A recent study by the nonprofit Economic Roundtable found that union workers in Los Angeles County earn 27 percent more than nonunion workers in the same job. The increased wages for the 800,000 union workers -- 17 percent of the labor force -- adds $7.2 billion a year in pay. As these workers spend their wages on food, clothing, child care, car and home repairs, and other items, their additional buying power creates 64,800 jobs and $11 billion in economic output. Many economists argue that any strategy Obama and Congress use to revitalize the economy should make higher wages -- and stronger unions -- a centerpiece.
...
We have an uphill battle ahead, but the good news is we just organized our neighborhoods and beyond for the last 6 months (at least), so at this point (for some of us) it's just a matter of mobilizing our troops and giving them the information they need to get the message out and push for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. For those of you who were members of local Obama groups - use those tools President-elect Obama gave you and contact your group about this issue. Have a list of friends you habitually email about issues? Spread the word to them and ask them to pass it along to their own friends. Post about Employee Free Choice on Facebook and MySpace and Twitter. Write a Letter to the Editor using the DNC tool - it allows you to enter your zip code and write to every local newspaper. Let's take the lessons of organizing and put them to use to help women and men across the country - let's organize to help make the Employee Free Choice Act a reality.
Here are some sample editorials and letters to the editor:
Support for the Employee Free Choice Act - from the Denver Post.
Employee Free Choice Act promises freedom, fairness to working Americans - from The Tennesseean. Check out the comments there to see what sort of responses you can expect to get - be prepared to reply to comments like those - remember that there are readers out there who won't comment - make your point to them because they may have an open mind even where the commenter does not.
Get your talking points here:
Baratunde Thurston (aka Jack Turner) over at Jack and Jill Politics talks about the benefits of the Employee Free Choice Act. Check out his chart.
Hillary Clinton's statement from the Senate is another good place to get talking points.
Talking to non-union workers and others about why Employee Free Choice is so important? Check out Labor Law Reform Not Just For Unions. This article emphasizes that this is a fight for ALL progressives to take on.
Keith Kelleher, provides further detail about what's at stake over at Progress Illinois.
Sign the petition to start, but please do more than that - let's work for this bill.
Updated: You can read Joe Biden's interview on This Week, here.