With the 2024 election fresh in our minds, I thought I’d take this opportunity to take stock of the top legislative and policy victories we’ve secured over the last four years.
While we can’t possibly list every victory, I’m hopeful that this review will embolden and motivate us for the important work that lies ahead.
Federal legislative and policy victories:
- Union Pensions Rescued: 120,000 active and retired USW members were among the 1.3 million union members whose pensions were rescued by the Biden/Harris American Rescue Plan.
- Lower Prescription Drug Costs were achieved through the historic Inflation Reduction Act, which empowered Medicare to negotiate costs with drug manufacturers. As a result, Medicare recipients now enjoy a $35 monthly cap for their insulin and, beginning in 2025, a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket prescription costs, saving an estimated 19 million Medicare beneficiaries $400 per year on average.
- Renewed, Pro-worker direction at the National Labor Relations Board has helped spur a massive surge in union elections. President Biden took swift action to fire the former NLRB general counsel who turned the Board against workers, chipping away at our bargaining ability and generally weakening unions. Then, on numerous occasions, Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to confirm labor-friendly members to the Board, creating an opportunity to restore and increase Board funding and to reverse Trump-era rules that restricted union activities in American worksites.
- Historic investments in American manufacturing, thanks to another tie-breaking vote from Vice President Harris, helped pass the Biden/Harris Inflation Reduction Act. This law is sparking private investment in new manufacturing and has provided existing facilities with the resources to upgrade technology to remain competitive.
- Hard-fought improvements in workplace health and safety include a new ban on the import and use of asbestos in worksites and a long-awaited rule to limit workers’ exposure to silica dust. Additionally, the Biden/Harris Department of Labor has moved to create a new federal standard to protect workers from heat-related illnesses and death.
State-level legislative and policy victories:
- Michigan’s newly-elected, pro-union governor and legislature – the state’s first in nearly 40 years – acted to restore workers’ collective bargaining rights by repealing the state’s so-called right-to-work law and putting an end to the unfair pension tax.
- Minnesota’s pro-worker, pro-retiree legislature and governor, Tim Walz (now our endorsed Vice Presidential Nominee), passed a state budget (HF3028/SF3035) that was hailed as the “most significant worker protection bill in state history.”
- In Ohio, voters defeated Issue 1, which would have raised the threshold for voters to amend the constitution to a supermajority of 60 percent and enacted stricter requirements for getting amendments on the ballot.
I hope this much-abbreviated list of accomplishments fills you with confidence and resolve as we gear up for another year of fighting to strengthen union power, enhance workplace safety and health, and protect every American’s right to a secure retirement.
While much attention has been focused on the presidential campaign, we must remember that state and federal lawmakers also make the decisions that impact our access to health care, our ability to afford prescribed medications, the availability of various health care services in our communities, and so much more.
Strengthening retirement security has long been a top priority of Steelworkers, as evidenced by our 2020, 2022 and 2024 Your Union, Your Voice (YUYV) survey results. We must remain vigilant in growing union power as we celebrate these policy victories and keep the momentum going.
-Julie Stein
SOAR Director