Senators Introduce Legislation to Protect the Right to Organize

Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and Reps. Bobby Scott (Va.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) have introducedthe Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would restore the right of workers to freely and fairly form a union and bargain together for changes in the workplace. The PRO Act is landmark worker empowerment, civil rights and social justice legislation, and an essential component to ensuring the economy works for all of us.

While there has been a surge of unionizing, there has also been an uptick in union busting as employers at Bates College, Starbucks and many others are exploiting our weak labor laws to try to block working people from exercising our rights. The PRO Act protects the basic right to join a union by:

• Holding employers accountable by imposing meaningful penalties for violations of workers’ rights.
• Securing free, fair, and safe union elections.
• Giving workers the power to override so-called “right-to-work” laws that prevent unions from collecting dues from the workers they represent. The PRO Act would allow workers and employers in unionized workplaces to enter into a contract that allows unions to collect dues from the workers they represent.
• Streamlining access to justice for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights. Currently workers who suffer retaliation for organizing are forced to wait months or even years before the case get resolved.
• Upholding workers’ right to support boycotts, strikes, or other acts of solidarity.
• Closing loopholes in labor law that erode workers’ rights. The PRO Act prevents employers from misclassifying their employees and prevents workers from being denied remedies due to their immigration status. It also sets a “joint employer” standard that ensures employees across the country have the right to collectively bargain with all of the companies that control the terms and conditions of their employment.