Kamala Harris blasts how workers lose $200 billion a year from the anti-union trend in the US economy

• President Joe Biden's new task force on strengthening unions kicked off on Thursday.
• Vice President Kamala Harris chairs the task force, with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh as vice chair.
• In opening remarks, Harris blasted the impact of declining union membership on workers' wages.

President Joe Biden's new task force on strengthening unions and their participants officially kicked off on Thursday. In her opening remarks, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is chairing the task force, emphasized the impact of declining union membership on American workers.

Because of the decline in union membership, "American workers are losing $200 billion a year," she said, citing unspecified research. "So this impacts not only the quality of life of the American worker, this impacts the quality of life of all Americans because it impacts our economy.

"And to the extent that we are interconnected - when our economy does well, when the middle class does well - we all do well, which means unions must do well."

The task force is aimed at bolstering union membership and worker power, specifically in organizing and bargaining. Harris seemed to be citing research from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, which has studied the impact of "deunionizing" over the past few decades.

EPI found that from 1979 to 2019, the share of workers who were covered by a collective-bargaining agreement dropped to 11.6% from 27% - and it attributed that drop to a rise in inequality. That's where the $200 billion figure comes from.

On the whole, unionized workers are paid more: Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that in 2020, "nonunion workers had median weekly earnings that were 84 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($958 versus $1,144)."

Biden has established himself as a vocal union supporter since taking office. "I'm a union guy. I support unions. Unions built the middle class. It's about time they start to get a piece of the action," he said in remarks in Pittsburgh in March introducing his American Jobs Plan.

The task force - which includes various Cabinet members, such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland - will review existing policies and look into the need for new ones, reporting back recommendations within 180 days. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, the vice chair, said on Thursday that it was an "honor" to be at the table as a second-generation union member.

"The bottom line is that we believe when workers organize, our economy gets stronger," Harris said. "And right now, we need our economy to get stronger."