Pass the PRO Act to Protect Veteran Workers
Representing manufacturing, production, maintenance and sanitation workers in the baking, confectionery, tobacco and grain milling industries.
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03 Mar Pass the PRO Act to Protect Veteran Workers

Posted at 14:04h in PRO Act, Union Veterans by

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) is also a top priority to the Union Veterans Council. 

Veterans and military families have a long history of joining unions, and like the BCTGM, the Union Veterans Council believes that a union will give a veteran a better life. The PRO Act will address key issues that are keeping veteran workers from achieving financial stability. The men and women who served our country deserve stable and secure employment, and thereโ€™s no better way to achieve that than by joining a union.

Attacks on our right to organize freely together are unpatriotic. The freedom to collectively bargain and achieve victories for the good of all workers is essential to the democracy and freedoms our service members served to protect. But these freedoms have been eroded for years upon years. With the PRO Act, we finally have a chance to change that and rewrite the rules of the economy.

Military Families are Union Families

Veterans and military families have a long history of being a part of unions, and many more veterans will join unions if they are given the opportunity.

  • Over one million veteran workers are union members.
  • Unions offer veterans the same sense of community that the military does.
  • Veterans are one third more likely to join a union than nonveterans.
  • Due to anti-union laws many veterans have not even had the opportunity to join a union.
  • Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows nearly 60 million people (almost half of nonunion workers) would vote to join a union today if given the opportunity.
  • Passing the PRO Act will create a pathway for even more veterans to become union veterans and allow them to live the American dream they served to defend

Veterans Need Unions 

Transitioning from military service is difficult, and unions help veterans navigate that difficult transition and set themselves up for success long-term with good careers. 

  • Financial instability is one of the greatest challenges facing veterans and transitioning service members. Fair wages and stable jobs will help us end the epidemic of veteran suicide.
  • Despite our obligation to make sure our veterans are financially stable, 31% of all working veterans make less than $31k per year.
  • 39% of veterans working in the construction industry make less than $20 an hour, many with no to few benefits.
  • 1 out of every 5 working veterans would benefit from raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024.
  • Unions are one of the best paths to achieving higher wages. When union membership is greater, veterans and military families do better.
  • Between 1948 and 1973, when New Deal era laws expanded and enforced collective bargaining, hourly wages rose by more than 90%. Millions of WWII GIโ€™s returned home and used a union job to help drive the creation of the middle class following the war. But over the next 40 yearsโ€”from 1973 to 2013โ€”hourly wages rose by just over 9% while productivity increased 74%.
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