In this live blogcast, Burnes Center for Social Change Senior Fellow Seth Harris is joined by Sharon Block, the Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, Bill Samuel, the former director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO, and a live audience made up of Power At Work subscribers. For our long-term subscribers, you would know that this is the second ‘buy or sell’ blogcast Power At Work has done, this time with a live audience giving us their labor predictions. Watch now to hear what these three labor experts have to say about the future of the NLRB, potential strikes and collective bargaining agreements, union memberships, and more!
Sharon Block is a Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School. Before returning to Harvard, she served as the senior official delegated the duties of the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in President Joe Biden’s White House. She also served as a senior advisor to the Biden-Harris Transition team, providing advice to the policy, OMB and Labor Agency Review teams on labor, worker empowerment and regulatory policy, and participating in briefing and hearing preparation for nominees.
Bill Samuel was the director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO before retiring. In addition to serving as the chief lobbyist for the 12.5 million-member labor federation, Samuel chaired the AFL-CIO’s Legislative Committee, which is made up of legislative representatives from the federation’s 55 affiliated unions. Samuel returned to the labor movement in January 2001 after a five-year stint in the Clinton administration, serving first as associate deputy secretary of labor under Robert Reich and then Alexis Herman. In 2000, Samuel joined the White House staff as senior policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, serving as the vice president’s principal adviser on labor policy issues and liaison to organized labor.
