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Biden signs executive order in Michigan favoring unions

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Biden signs executive order in Michigan favoring unions

Scio Township — President Joe Biden returned to Michigan on Friday, signing an order directing federal agencies to prioritize new labor standards in their project selections, including voluntary union recognition and employee benefits.

The White House detailed the “Good Jobs” order, in a press release Friday morning. Biden signed it during an afternoon visit to United Association Local 190’s Job Training Center in Washtenaw County.

The new order will instruct federal agencies to consider prioritizing projects that supply child and dependent care, health insurance, paid leave and retirement benefits and to incentivize pro-labor standards to “the greatest extent possible” by including application evaluation criteria about them, according to the White House. The president’s order also directs agencies to consider incentivizing new labor standards for manufacturing grants.

Friday’s event in the Ann Arbor area occurs as the nation’s economy becomes a stronger focus in the presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The president’s Good Jobs EO calls on agencies to adopt a series of high-road labor standards that have long been recognized to lead to both better jobs and on-time, high-quality delivery of federally funded projects,” the White House statement said Friday morning. “With this executive order, the Biden-Harris Administration is the first in history to specify a clear list of labor standards that all federal agencies should look to prioritize.”

Likewise, the order, according to the White House, marks “the strongest package of priorities that any administration has taken to help promote the free and fair choice to join a union through federally funded and federally supported projects.”

The stop in Washtenaw County on Friday is Biden’s first visit to Michigan since he decided to drop his reelection bid on July 21 and endorse Harris, a former U.S. senator from California, to become the Democratic nominee. The Nov. 5 election is 60 days away.

A statewide poll of 600 likely voters last week, commissioned The Detroit News and WDIV-TV (Channel 4), showed Trump, the former president, with a slight lead over Harris in Michigan, 44.7%-43.5%. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Asked what the most important issue for the upcoming election was, 19.5% of the poll’s participants said jobs and the economy, making it the top answer. The third most frequent answer was inflation and the cost of living at 12%.

Together, the two replies were named as the key topic by about 32% of participants, nearly one in every three and up from 27% in a similar July survey.

More: How ‘minor shifts’ could swing a close presidential race in Michigan

Employers in the U.S. added 142,000 jobs last month, up from 89,000 in July, the federal Labor Department said Friday. Meanwhile, the country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% from 4.3% in July, which had been the highest level in nearly three years.

Victoria LaCivita, the Trump’s campaign spokeswoman in Michigan, said in a statement Friday that Biden’s trip to Michigan “another sickening reminder to every Michigander that a Kamala presidency would be another four years of historic inflation, high prices and lost jobs to electric vehicles.”

“Despite Kamala and Joe’s best efforts, Michigan voters know that only President Donald J. Trump offers the common sense solutions that will Make Michigan Great Again,” LaCivita said.

Biden last visited Michigan for a campaign rally in Detroit on July 12.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

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