WASHINGTON—President Biden’s $2.3 trillion plan to invest in infrastructure, clean energy and caregiving over the coming decade would be a boon for construction workers, truck drivers, electricians and home health aides.
Both critics and supporters of the initiative say it will also benefit another group: labor unions.
Some business groups, employment law experts and Republican lawmakers say provisions aimed at bolstering union membership and expanding labor protections could increase costs, limit the number of projects that can be completed with the proposed funding and reduce the gains in economic growth.
For Mr. Biden, those provisions are key to ensuring the package creates millions of “good-paying union jobs of the future.” In 2020, just 10.8% of U.S. workers belonged to unions, half the share in 1983, but those workers earned a dollar for every 84 cents earned by nonunion workers.
“The president has made very clear that he wants to be the most labor-friendly president in history, and the steps that he’s taking in many different ways are designed to accomplish that,” said Michael Lotito, co-chairman of the Workplace Policy Institute at Littler Mendelson, an employment law firm based in San Francisco.
