Sanders's proposal includes the sweeping labor law reform bill he proposed in 2018, which would require companies to recognize unions once the majority of workers sign cards; abolish state "right-to-work" laws that prohibit mandatory union fees; ban mandatory workplace anti-union meetings; make it harder for companies to claim their workers are independent contractors rather than employees; and protect workers' jobs during work stoppages.

"What is a worker's line of defense? It is the right to strike," Sanders said. "That is the means that you have to tell your employer, 'Hey, we're serious.'"

His bill, which was co-sponsored in the Senate by rival presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, would reverse key provisions of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act considered by some scholars and union activists to have played a major role in organized labor's decline.

The new labor platform promises a "fair transition" to Sanders's signature Medicare for All policy, which has become a major flashpoint in the Democratic presidential race. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters last month that "while we would like to see universal health care, we want to make sure that there is a role for employer-bargained plans in that plan, whatever it happens to be."

Sanders's proposal, according to his campaign, would require that savings from the transition to Medicare for All "result in wage increases and additional benefits for workers."

Sanders said in the interview there were "very very few, if any" union-negotiated plans that offer benefits as comprehensive as would Medicare for All.

While a less ambitious labor law proposal died in the U.S. Senate a decade ago under Obama, Sanders said he believes increased militancy in the labor movement and widespread popular support would help to get his legislation passed.

"I think workers are getting sick and tired of the decimation of the working class," he said. "I think the momentum is with us."

Sanders' plan got a warm welcome Wednesday from the Service Employees International Union, one of the biggest labor groups.

"It's great to see a strong plan from Bernie Sanders to overhaul our defective and outdated labor laws," SEIU President Mary Kay Henry said in an emailed statement. "This proposal is the latest sign that 2020 candidates can't ignore the millions of workers demanding leaders rewrite the rules so everyone can join a union, no matter where we work."

Read more: 

• Corporate America braces for labor negotiations
• Trump cracks down on federal workers' unions
• As workforces evolve, unions play key roles in training young and old

Copyright 2019 Bloomberg. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.