Biden signs executive order prioritizing federal grants for projects with higher worker wages

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — President Biden signed an executive order on Friday on federal grants that will prioritize projects covering worker contracts, wage standards and benefits such as access to child care and apprenticeship programs.

Biden said the ideas in his order “are common sense.”

“Economists have long believed that good labor standards create more opportunities, better outcomes for workers and more predictable outcomes for companies,” he said at a union training center in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he made the announcement. “Good union work is about building the future you dream of.”

The Biden administration is trying to make the case that economic growth should come from better conditions for workers. His administration has emphasized the key role organized labor is likely to play for Democrats in the November election. In her challenge to Republican Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris is counting on the support of the AFL-CIO and other unions to help mobilize voters in key swing states.

Biden has boasted about his support for unions, joining striking Michigan union workers on a picket line last year. On Friday, he took the stage to chants of “Thank you, Joe!”

Trump has also tried to reach out to organized labor, inviting Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention. The Teamsters have not yet formally endorsed a candidate, though Harris is expected to meet with them.

Biden said that under his administration, “we’re buying American. And we’re making sure that federal projects are American-made projects.”

The regulation will establish a task force to coordinate policy development to provide greater benefits to workers. The administration’s funding for infrastructure, computer chip production and renewable energy development has led to a wave of projects.

By the administration’s own count, its incentives have spurred $900 billion in private-sector investment in renewables and manufacturing. Those commitments have yet to resonate with voters who are more concerned with the long-term damage from a surge in inflation in 2022, but many of the projects will take several years to materialize.

“A good job is one that provides security and benefits, and workers have the right to join a union, work for better working conditions, return home safe and sound, and retire with dignity,” said Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su.

Although he was not in Michigan for a campaign event, Biden spoke out about his predecessor, stating that Trump would rather “cross the picket line than walk across it.”

“My predecessor believed that America was a failing nation,” Biden said, recalling the president’s oft-repeated complaint about a 2020 report that found Trump had called American soldiers killed in action at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 “losers” and “suckers.”

Trump denied these reports.

“I’m glad I wasn’t there,” Biden said. “I think I would have done something. I think you would have done something, too.”

Biden added: “He’s a loser. He’s a loser.”

Biden’s late son, Beau, died of cancer in 2015. The president blamed the burn pits for his brain cancer. The burn pits are where chemicals, tires, plastics, medical equipment and human waste were dumped on military bases and were also used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I’m sorry I got so emotional. But I miss him,” Biden said, before turning his attention back to union workers, calling them heroes.

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