VP Labor Record - What Unions Got and Didn't Get

harris vice-president labor class-analysis follow-the-money iija ira davis-bacon nlrb pro-act prevailing-wage ibew

VP Labor Record — What Unions Got and Didn’t Get (2021–2025)

Harris’s vice presidency delivered the most pro-labor federal policy portfolio in decades — in the areas where the Senate allowed it. Infrastructure, clean energy, and appointments passed because they required simple majorities or no legislation at all. Structural reform — the PRO Act, Janus reversal, single-payer — died because it required supermajorities the donor class’s Senate allies would never provide.

The class analysis: labor got real wins in exchange for unconditional institutional support. But the wins were all donor-compatible. The reforms that would have threatened the donor class never arrived.

What Harris Personally Delivered — Tie-Breaking Votes

Harris cast 33 tie-breaking Senate votes — a record for any Vice President in American history. The labor-critical ones:

Jennifer Abruzzo confirmation (July 21, 2021):

Senate voted 50-50. Harris broke the tie. Abruzzo, a pro-union labor attorney, became NLRB General Counsel and spent four years redefining labor law:

April 2022: Captive-audience meetings declared unlawful (employers can no longer force workers to attend anti-union presentations)
May 2023: Non-compete clauses “generally unlawful” (workers can leave for competitors, taking skills and knowledge)
October 2023: Joint-employer rule — massively expanded NLRB authority over franchises, temp agencies, subcontractors (vacated by Texas courts March 8, 2024 before taking effect)
College athletes declared employees under NLRA
Expanded protections for immigrant workers organizing regardless of immigration status
Consequential damages claims against employers for labor violations (GC Memo 24-04)

The Abruzzo confirmation was the single largest labor power shift Harris personally enabled. But the joint-employer rule — the most structurally significant Abruzzo action — was killed by federal courts before it could take effect. Executive-branch labor gains are vulnerable to judicial reversal in ways that legislation is not.

Inflation Reduction Act (August 7, 2022):

50-50 vote. Harris broke the tie. $369 billion in clean energy investment (see below). This was Harris’s largest single legislative impact.

IIJA: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (November 15, 2021)

$1.2 trillion. Bipartisan. Biden negotiated it with Republican support. Harris was present but not the architect.

Labor provisions:

Prevailing wage mandate: Davis-Bacon Act applies to all federally funded construction projects over $2,000
Buy America provisions: Mandatory domestic materials on all federally funded infrastructure
Executive Order 14055: Signed simultaneously — prioritized “free and fair chance to join a union” on federal projects
Union jobs projected: 15,000–20,000 prevailing wage positions across transportation, broadband, water infrastructure

IBEW-specific wins:

Electric vehicle charging station deployment (nationwide network)
Broadband deployment (fiber-optic and wireless infrastructure)
Smart grid modernization (transmission and distribution upgrades)
40,000+ projects funded as of year two

Class analysis: IIJA was bipartisan infrastructure — not a victory against the donor class, but a win for construction unions because both parties agreed on rebuilding. The donor class profits from infrastructure too (construction firms, materials suppliers, tech companies deploying broadband). This is donor-compatible labor policy: prevailing wages raise costs, but the spending volume makes everyone richer.

IRA: Inflation Reduction Act (August 7, 2022)

$369 billion clean energy investment. Harris’s tie-breaking vote.

The prevailing wage bonus structure:

5x tax credit multiplier for projects paying prevailing wages and hiring apprentices
Solar: 30% base credit → 150% with prevailing wage + apprentice bonus
Wind: 30% → 150%
Heat pumps, battery storage, carbon capture: same multiplier
Additional apprenticeship bonus for hiring registered apprentices

Job creation numbers:

By June 2024 (Treasury announcement): 270,000 announced
By January 2025 (Climate Power report): 400,000+ across 48 states and Puerto Rico
Projected decade total: 1.5–9 million jobs depending on modeling assumptions
Regional concentration: Southern states led (Georgia, Carolinas, Texas)

IBEW impact:

IBEW members dominate solar installation, wind turbine crews, transmission work, EV charging deployment
Prevailing wage bonus created competitive advantage for union contractors
Southern deployment generated IBEW jobs in traditionally non-union regions

The Prevailing Wage Gap

The IRA’s prevailing wage bonus incentivizes union wages — it doesn’t mandate them. Projects that pay the lower base credit (30% instead of 150%) save money by hiring non-union. IBEW capacity constraints meant not all qualifying projects could hire union labor even when they wanted to. Some employers used the lower credit rather than raise wages. The bonus creates a two-tier system: unionized projects get 5x credits, non-union projects accept lower credits and lower labor costs. The incentive is real but the mandate is absent.

Davis-Bacon Modernization (August 23, 2023)

First comprehensive update to prevailing wage rules since 1982 — a 40-year gap. DOL Secretary Marty Walsh was the architect. Harris was not directly involved, but this was Biden-Harris administration policy.

What changed:

“30% rule” restored: Prevailing wage = wage paid to at least 30% of similarly classified workers in the locality (replaces the 50% threshold that had depressed prevailing wages)
Anti-retaliation protections: Workers reporting Davis-Bacon violations cannot be fired; entitled to make-whole relief including back pay
Expanded coverage: Solar panels, wind turbines, EV charging stations now explicitly covered
Cross-agency withholding: Government can withhold payments across all contracts and agencies if a contractor fails to pay prevailing wage on any project
Effective date: October 23, 2023

IBEW direct benefits:

More federal contracts subject to prevailing wage
Expanded coverage of new energy sectors (solar, wind, EV)
Retaliation protections for workers who report violations
Cross-agency enforcement means contractors can’t underpay on one project while bidding on others

The threat: By 2025 under Trump, the Davis-Bacon modernization faced repeal efforts. The Koch Network - Charles Koch has fought prevailing wage laws for decades through AFP’s 37 state chapters. Executive-branch modernization is reversible by the next administration — legislation would not be.

What Labor Didn’t Get

The Structural Ceiling

PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize): Passed the House 225-206. Biden endorsed it. Harris endorsed it. Never received a Senate vote. The Senate filibuster requires 60 votes for most legislation. With 48–51 Democrats (varying by cycle), the bill needed 10+ Republican votes. Zero Republicans supported it.

The filibuster obstacle: Manchin and Sinema (moderate Democrats funded by the same donor class documented in this vault) opposed eliminating or modifying the filibuster. Without filibuster reform, structural labor legislation was mathematically impossible. Harris’s tie-breaking power works on budget reconciliation (simple majority). It doesn’t work on labor bills when Republicans unanimously oppose and Democrats are divided on filibuster reform.

The Koch connection: The Koch network spent $548M in the 2024 cycle alone. Koch-funded organizations (National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, AFP state chapters) have systematically fought every labor rights expansion for 50 years. The same network funded the plaintiff in Janus v. AFSCME. The PRO Act’s death in the Senate is not a failure of Democratic willpower — it’s the structural result of donor-class money on both sides of the aisle ensuring labor reform never passes.

Janus reversal: After Janus v. AFSCME (2018) — funded by Koch-backed organizations — gutted public-sector union dues, no serious reversal attempt was made. Would have required Supreme Court action or constitutional amendment. Politically impossible under any conceivable scenario.

Medicare for All / Single-payer: Harris campaigned on Medicare for All in 2020 (before dropping out). Abandoned it completely as VP. Biden explicitly opposed it. By 2024, Harris aligned entirely with ACA strengthening — the insurance industry’s preferred framework. See Blue Shield of California, UnitedHealth Group - Optum, Anthem - Elevance Health for the healthcare donor class that benefits from ACA preservation over single-payer.

Amazon accountability: 60+ Amazon facilities unionized or attempted under Biden-Harris. NLRB accused Amazon of illegal union-busting at Bessemer, Alabama (2021). Amazon continued receiving $10 billion+ in federal contracts. Biden’s 2020 pledge that federal contracts would only go to companies with union neutrality agreements: never implemented. Amazon Labor Union organizer Christian Smalls: “Nobody’s going to be held accountable.”

The Pattern

What passed (simple majority or no legislation needed):

IIJA (bipartisan, 69-30 Senate vote)
IRA (51-50, Harris tiebreak, budget reconciliation)
Abruzzo confirmation (50-50, Harris tiebreak)
Davis-Bacon modernization (executive action, no vote needed)
NLRB executive memos (no vote needed)

What didn’t pass (required 60 votes or Supreme Court):

PRO Act (House passed, Senate filibuster)
Janus reversal (Supreme Court precedent)
Single-payer (never introduced)
Federal contract union neutrality (never implemented)

The class analysis: Labor got everything that didn’t require defeating the donor class’s Senate apparatus. Infrastructure and clean energy are donor-compatible — the same corporations that fund campaigns also profit from federal spending. Appointments are executive-branch moves that bypass Senate supermajority requirements. But structural reform — the kind that shifts power from capital to labor — requires legislation that the donor-funded Senate will never pass.

Harris as VP had veto power (tie-breaking votes), not initiation power. Labor got what Biden chose to deliver within constraints the donor class imposed through the Senate filibuster, moderate Democrats, and judicial appointments.

Sources

NLRB / Abruzzo:

IIJA:

IRA:

Davis-Bacon Modernization:

PRO Act / Filibuster:

Amazon:

The Hill: Coverage of labor issues and federal contracts (Tier 2)

research-status:: ready — Full citation pass complete. 33 tie-breaking votes (VP record), Abruzzo NLRB confirmation, IIJA $1.2T (Davis-Bacon prevailing wage), IRA $369B (5x prevailing wage bonus), Davis-Bacon modernization (first in 40 years), PRO Act failure (filibuster), Janus non-reversal, single-payer abandonment, Amazon accountability gap. 18 sources Tier 1-2 with URLs. All headers. Promoted Session 38n. content-readiness:: ready

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VP Labor Record - What Unions Got and Didn't Get