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Biden will speak at the AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention, which
is held every four years, and where labor leaders chart
strategy. The labor federation comprises 57 affiliated unions
and 12.5 million workers.
It is led by Liz Shuler, the federation's first female
president, who replaced longtime labor leader Richard Trumka,
who died last year.
Biden, who is often called the "most pro-union president" by
labor leaders, has continued to throw his support behind unions
and collective bargaining.
He has ousted government officials whom unions deemed hostile to
labor, reversed Trump-era rules that weakened worker protections
and established a White House labor taskforce to reverse a
decades-long decline in union membership.
More recently, Biden met with a new generation of union
organizers at the White House, warned major businesses that
their workforces would seek to unionize with his support and has
supported a push on Capitol Hill that allows for congressional
staffers to unionize.
Support from unions was key to Biden's win in key swing states
in the 2020 election. Biden won 57% of union households
nationwide compared with 40% for former President Donald Trump,
according to Edison Research.
Only 10.3% of the U.S. workforce was represented by a union in
2021, down from more than 30% in the 1950s, the White House said
in February. The numbers are even lower for private-sector
employees, where union membership has fallen to 6.1% in 2021
from 16.8% in 1983.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Sam Holmes)
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