Why workers need the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
Nearly half (48%) of all nonunion workers surveyed say they would vote for a union if given the opportunity—a roughly 50% higher share than when a similar survey was taken 40 years earlier. And the 65% of Americans who approve of labor unions is higher than it has been since the early 2000s, with young workers ages 18–34 the most supportive. But the share of workers represented by a union was just 12.1% in 2020. If so many workers want union representation, why don’t they have it? The fact is that our current labor law—which is supposed to protect the right of workers in the private sector to organize—actually makes it very difficult for workers to win union representation. Workers face multiple hurdles when they try to organize and employers have too much leeway to interfere with workers’ free choice. Employers have many legal ways to intimidate and coerce workers, and when employers resort to illegal tactics such as firing workers for organizing, they incur no monetary penalties.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act addresses many of the major shortcomings with our current law. Passing the PRO Act would help restore workers’ ability to organize with their co-workers and negotiate for better pay, benefits, and fairness on the job. Passing the PRO Act would also promote greater racial economic justice because unions and collective bargaining help shrink the Black–white wage gap and bring greater fairness to the workplace.
Problems that the PRO Act addresses
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is supposed to protect the rights of private-sector workers to organize. But there are serious shortcomings in the current law—and in the operations of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) established to carry out key parts of the law. The weaknesses are exploited by anti-union employers and the union-busting consultants they hire, who intimidate workers seeking to unionize, stall union elections, and erect roadblocks to negotiating union contracts that improve pay and working conditions for workers.
Problem: Employers can fire pro-union workers with no real consequences
In one out of every five union organizing campaigns, employers fire pro-union workers, because employers know this will frighten employees and undermine the organizing campaign. This is illegal under the NLRA, but employers do it anyway. In fact, employers are charged with violating the law by firing activists, making illegal threats, and engaging in other unlawful conduct in 41.5% of all organizing campaigns.
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https://www.epi.org/publication/why-workers-need-the-pro-act-fact-sheet/
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