22 Jan PRO Act: Our Highest Legislative Priority in 2021
President Biden has indicated he will seek to build worker power by strengthening unions. On election day eve, campaigning in western Pennsylvania, he promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen”. In his campaign platform, Biden endorsed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (Pro Act) which would make it easier for unions to organize workers.
America’s labor laws are no longer an effective. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act will provide significant protections for workers exercising their legal right to form a union, a right that’s been trampled on for decades by union-busting consultants and anti-worker employers and politicians.
“The PRO Act is the BCTGM’s number one legislative priority for a reason. Workers need legislation that ensures a process to reach a first contract once the union is recognized, prevent the misclassification of employees, protect the right to strike and so much else,” notes BCTGM International President Anthony Shelton.
The PRO Act protects workers’ right to organize by:
- Authorizing meaningful penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights,
- Strengthening and streamlining support for workers who face retaliation for exercising their rights, and
- Making union elections free and fair by creating stronger protections for workers who want to organize.
- Check out the fact sheet on the PRO Act click here.
“It’s going to be long road to undo all the damage that’s been done the past four years by the Trump majority on the board,” said BCTGM International Director of Organization John Price. “Their overruling of federal laws protecting workers has been so sweeping – they have reversed laws that went back decades.”