PRO Act Would Rebuild Labor Movement

Biden, Democrats Breathe New Life into Legislation to Restore Workers’ Rights

A new president and Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress have given new life to a bill that would restore union rights and level the playing field for workers more than any time since the New Deal reforms that followed the Great Depression.

The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would mean better wages, benefits and working conditions for all workers as many more Americans would have a fair shot at joining a union. The bill would remove unnecessary barriers to joining unions and would establish meaningful penalties against employers who illegally try to bully and intimidate workers into halting unionization efforts.

The U.S. House passed the legislation in February in a bipartisan vote. It faces a tougher battle in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans continue to employ the filibuster to thwart much of the majority’s pro-worker agenda. 

Unnecessary Delays

One employer that used a host of bullying and obstruction tactics in recent years was Kumho Tire in Macon, Ga. Though the workers were eventually successful in joining the USW, their efforts were met with a vicious union-busting campaign and years of delays. The company’s behavior included repeated threats to workers, unwarranted dismissals, illegal interrogations and creating the impression of surveillance.

“For too long, corporations and their political cronies have been chipping away at workers’ rights, making it harder for them to band together,” said International President Tom Conway. “The PRO Act is a much-needed corrective to this assault on workers’ power. It will pave the way for American workers to better advocate for themselves and their families.”

The legislation also would set realistic deadlines for companies and union members to bargain first contracts following successful organizing drives. Under current rules, companies often employ high-priced union-busting lawyers to drag the process out for years in an attempt to frustrate workers and stymie their efforts, even in cases where large majorities voted for representation.

Halting Union-Busting

In many cases, workers who want a union don’t even get to the point where they begin to negotiate, because for decades labor laws have been written to favor union-busting employers rather than workers.

When Duane Forbes and his co-workers tried to form a union at Orchid Orthopedic Solutions in Bridgeport, Mich., the company hired five union-busters to harass workers. They badgered employees regularly on the shop floor, issuing veiled threats that the medical device factory would close or cut off workers’ health care if they voted to join the union. The vote eventually fell short.

“Fear was their main tactic. Fear is the hardest thing to overcome,” Forbes said. “There was nowhere to go. You couldn’t just go to work and do your job anymore.”

Under current labor law, union-busting employers engage in such behavior regularly with little to no consequences. The PRO Act would change that and usher in a new era of union organizing not seen in decades.

Workers Want Unions

Polls show that more than 60 percent of U.S. workers would join a union if given the choice. Yet, unions in 2020 only represented 10.8 percent of the American work force, a number that has fallen by roughly half over the past 40 years.

President Joe Biden, both on the campaign trail and now in the Oval Office, has promised to reverse that trend and restore the voice of workers.

“The middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class,” Biden said in March. Unions, he said, “increase wages, improve the quality of jobs and protect job security, protect against racial and all other forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, and protect workers’ health, safety, and benefits in the workplace.”

“I urge Congress to send the PRO Act to my desk,” he said.

The new law, the president said, would usher in an era of prosperity for working families like the nation saw in the decades that followed the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935.

Perhaps even more importantly, said Conway, the PRO Act will restore the voices of American workers so they can be equal partners in the decisions that affect their lives and communities.

“The opportunity to organize and bargain collectively is one of our most fundamental rights as workers,” Conway said. “If we truly want to rebuild our nation’s middle class and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to realize the American dream, we must enact pro-worker legislation, starting with the PRO Act.”

Call Your Senators

The Rapid Response team is asking USW members across the country to contact their U.S. senators and urge them to vote YES for the PRO Act to restore workers’ rights. 

Please call your senators at: 877-607-0785. (Remember, you have two senators, so be sure to make two calls!)

It's time to invest in America again

When we make the pipe at McWane Ductile in Ohio that supplies our nation's clean water systems we also make American dreams. We make a stronger economy and better communities. It's time to invest in America again - in infrastructure that's #USWMade. More: uswvoices.org.

USW: Infrastructure Deal a Critical Step in Process

Contact: R.J. Hufnagel, rhufnagel@usw.org, 412-562-2450

The United Steelworkers (USW) today called the agreement that President Joe Biden announced yesterday with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators a positive step in what must be an ongoing process of rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

“Yesterday’s compromise gets us closer than ever to enacting a historic infrastructure program,” said USW International President Tom Conway. “After so many years of inaction from the White House, it is a welcome relief that the Biden administration is clearly committed to getting this done, but there is much more work to do before we can celebrate. This agreement is just one piece of what we hope will be a many-faceted approach to rebuilding our nation.”

Conway said the final plan must do more than just address the country’s crumbling roads and bridges, water systems and power grids. Congress must also enact legislation to ensure upgrades to the nation’s “human infrastructure” such as education, child care, health care and other essential services.

“Infrastructure is more than just iron pipes, steel beams and cement blocks,” he said. “It’s the teachers who educate our children and it’s the nurses who care for our aging parents. The final plans Congress approves must take a wider view of our national infrastructure than we have in the past so that we see lasting improvements in our quality of life for decades to come.” 

The COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-up call for those in Congress who in the past have failed to look at infrastructure as a long-term, big-picture issue, Conway said.    

“The pandemic made it clear that we must invest heavily both in restoring our nation’s manufacturing capacity and in keeping the American people safe,” he said. “That means making sure we never have to look overseas for essential goods. It means training new generations of workers so we have Americans ready to make the products we need. And it means supporting union organizing so that we make sure the jobs we create are the kinds of jobs that can support families and communities.”

USW Members at Google Contractor HCL Meet with VP Harris Labor Secretary Walsh

Contact: R.J. Hufnagel, 412-562-2450, rhufnagel@usw.org

USW members who work for Google contractor HCL met this afternoon with Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh to address the importance of promoting union organizing on a national scale.

The conversation took place following a larger meeting the two Biden administration officials held with representatives from the USW and seven other Pittsburgh-area unions at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall on the city’s South Side.

“Becoming a union member is a life-changing moment, and it’s good to see that this administration supports that,” said Amanda Parks, a USW member who works at HCL. “The surest way to promote good jobs and economic security for the working class is to grow union density across all sectors of the economy, from service jobs to blue collar jobs to white collar jobs and everywhere in between.”

About 80 tech workers at HCL, who work side-by-side with Google employees at the company’s Pittsburgh offices, voted in September 2019 to join the USW’s Federation of Tech Workers. The group is in the process of negotiating its first contract with the company.

This April, President Joe Biden signed an executive order establishing the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, which is intended to use a whole-of-government approach to encourage worker organizing and expand collective bargaining.

Vice President Harris chairs the task force, with Secretary Walsh serving as vice chair. Twenty-three other top administration officials also serve on the panel.

In addition, the administration is calling on the U.S. Senate to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would remove unnecessary barriers to union organizing and increase punishments for employers who illegally attempt to block workers’ collective efforts. The U.S. House passed the bill in March with a bipartisan vote.

“Today’s meeting is an encouraging reminder that workers have allies in the White House and throughout this administration,” said HCL worker Wynne Lanros. “It’s heartening to know that we have leaders who do more than just talk about supporting working people. They actually back up that talk with action to support them and their voices.”