AFL-CIO to explore taking a stance on eliminating filibuster

Two of organized labor's highest priorities for the Biden administration, the PRO Act and the Raise the Wage Act, are both unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate.

The AFL-CIO's executive board will meet next week to determine its position on eliminating the filibuster, the labor federation's president, Richard Trumka, told POLITICO Thursday.

Two of organized labor's highest priorities in Congress — boosting the minimum wage to $15 an hour and legislation containing a long list of union priorities known as the PRO Act — are unlikely to garner the 60 votes needed for passage in the Senate.

"There are several ways to get them done," Trumka said. Ending the filibuster "is one of them."

"And quite frankly, we — we being my executive board — are going to have a discussion about that next Wednesday," he said. "We're going to have that discussion [about] where we ought to be on that very issue."

If organized labor coalesces around overturning the filibuster, a priority for many progressives, it could give the movement significant momentum. A major ally of Democrats and the president's election campaign, unions have seen early success in lobbying the Biden White House. Unions pressed Biden, after weeks of silence, to speak out on a high-stakes union election at an Amazon factory in Alabama — which some say was the most pro-union statement a president has ever made."

The Raise the Wage Act, which Democrats had been hoping to clear as part of President Joe Biden's coronavirus relief bill, would hike the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 and eliminate the subminimum wage for workers who earn tips. But the Senate parliamentarian last week ruled the wage provisions ineligible for enactment via the budget reconciliation process Democrats are using to shield the relief legislation from a GOP filibuster in the Senate.

The PRO Act would dramatically expand workers' ability to join and form unions, including by empowering the National Labor Relations Board to levy fines on employers who retaliate against workers for attempting to organize, and by extending collective bargaining rights to more workers.

"The PRO Act is our litmus test," Trumka said. "It has to get done."

"I don't want to hear, 'Oh my, we don't have 60 votes, woe is we.' Figure out a way to do it. Let's figure out a way to do it."

The White House is weighing whether to compromise with Republicans — who recently offered their own, scaled-down minimum wage hike — in order to get a raise enacted once Congress passes its Covid relief bill. But asked if he would be willing to back down from $15 an hour, Trumka was blunt: "I'm not willing to move from it."

"I think that's the absolute minimum that's necessary to dignify people, reward work and help a family get out of poverty," he said. "The easiest path forward would be for [Republicans] to come to their senses and say, '$15 by 2025.'"

In addition to eliminating the filibuster, the labor federation will also explore whether Democrats can "find another bill that the Republicans want and append" the wage increase to it, Trumka said, "or do three or four other kinds of machinations that we can do."

Rebecca Rainey contributed to this report.