By Jim Tankersley and Alan Rappeport

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden warned on Monday (16) of a “very dark winter” ahead and called on Congress to pass a large economic stimulus package immediately to help workers, businesses, and state and local governments struggling to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden gave his first major policy speech since he won the election after participating in a virtual meeting with business and union leaders, including the chief executives of General Motors, Microsoft, Target and the Gap and the head of the United Auto Workers. The group, meeting over Zoom, discussed how to safely reopen the American economy when virus cases continue to surge across the nation, prompting renewed lockdowns.

The president-elect’s decision to highlight his meeting with labour groups and businesses underscores the immense challenge facing his administration, which will have to contend with a spike in coronavirus infections and deaths, a faltering economic recovery and a public weary of restrictions on everyday life.

Many businesses continue to struggle with reduced activity and are eager to bring workers — and customers — back, while unions continue to insist that corporations don’t needlessly expose workers to risk.

Participants said the discussion, which was closed to reporters, focused heavily on how to keep businesses operating and on workplace safety, including union leaders’ push for enhanced worker protections through the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“The majority of the discussion with GM was on COVID protocols and the importance of keeping manufacturing running,” said a GM official familiar with the discussion. “There’s a lot of interest in how we are working with the UAW to keep the workforce safe and keep the plants running.”

Rory Gamble, the president of the autoworkers’ union, said in an interview that he had urged Biden to make sure OSHA issued “strong enforceable standards” to keep workers safe during the pandemic. Under the Trump administration, OSHA has declined to put out specific coronavirus-related regulations, opting instead for recommendations, and has largely avoided inspecting facilities outside of a few high-risk industries like health care and emergency response.

Biden sought to project unity among the group, saying, “We all agreed that we want to get the economy back on track, we need our workers to be back on the job by getting the virus under control.” But the United States is “going into a very dark winter,” he said. “Things are going to get much tougher before they get easier.”

To help businesses and workers make it through, Biden said, Congress needs to quickly pass another round of stimulus, but he offered no hint of the sort of policy compromise that could help break a partisan impasse in Washington over a new round of economic assistance. He instead reaffirmed his support for a $3.4 trillion plan that House Democrats approved in May and that Senate Republicans have rejected for months.

Biden said he hoped that a dozen or more Republican senators would join Democrats in passing the type of expansive package they approved in the spring. That aid included $1,200 checks to low- and middle-income Americans, new loans for hard-hit small businesses, state and local government assistance, and expanded federal testing and tracing programs.

As Biden warned of economic darkness, financial markets rallied Monday after the drugmaker Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5% effective, fuelling hopes that deployment of a highly effective vaccine could hasten the end of the pandemic and its economic damage.

The disconnect highlights the dangers for the economy in the coming months. Rising optimism for a vaccine could breed complacency among lawmakers when it comes to supporting the recovery, which is already losing steam and could be further hindered as critical spending programs expire at year end. It could also encourage individuals to disregard health officials’ warnings against activities that raise the risk of contracting the virus before a vaccine can be widely deployed.

President Donald Trump has refused to concede the results of this month’s presidential election, when he was defeated by Biden. But in the weeks after the vote, he has done little to champion additional stimulus for the recovery or mitigate the toll that the new wave of infections is exacting on the economy.

Widespread distribution of a vaccine that would allow Americans to resume anything close to normal levels of travel, dining out and other types of spending on services that have been crushed by the pandemic is most likely months away. Economists continue to call for a new and immediate round of aid from Congress to help people and businesses weather the difficult time before the rebound is complete.

There is little chance that lawmakers will use the lame-duck session after the election to approve anything close to the $3.4 trillion House bill that Biden championed Monday. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate majority leader, has called for a “highly targeted” bill, and his Republican caucus has backed a package that would cost around $500 billion.

Business leaders in Washington have pressed the sides to compromise. “There’s no advantage for Democrats or Republicans in waiting until the new year,” Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said this month.

Among the business and labour leaders Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke with were Mary T. Barra, chief executive of GM; Sonia Syngal, chief executive of the Gap; Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft; Brian Cornell, chairman and chief executive of Target; Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union; and Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Harris said the group “had an important conversation about the impact that this pandemic has had on workers, especially essential workers, frontline workers, who have risked their own health and the health of their families, and many who have given their own lives to keep us safe and keep our economy running.”

Trumka told Biden that the economy needed more investment in personal protective equipment and funding to retrofit businesses and schools so they have better ventilation and can meet social distancing guidelines. He also called for spending on more robust testing and contact tracing to contain the virus.

Saunders urged Biden to provide relief for states and cities, saying that when public service workers are laid off, local businesses suffer.

Cornell told Biden about the role that the retail industry plays for American consumers and said he hoped the government would provide “clear, consistent guidance around safety, regulations and the future rollout of a coronavirus vaccine.”

Target noted that it had kept its stores and supply chains operating during the pandemic — and that it was steering clear of politics.

-New York Times