AFL-CIO Blog

  • 13 Ways the PRO Act Helps Working People
    13 Ways the PRO Act Helps Working People The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is a generational opportunity and the cornerstone of the AFL-CIO’s Workers First Agenda. It motivated working people this past election cycle to mobilize for a pro-worker trifecta in the U.S. House, Senate and White House. And working people won a mandate. The PRO Act was introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (Va.), and it is landmark worker empowerment, civil rights and economic stimulus legislation, and an essential part of any plan to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. Here are 13 ways that the PRO Act helps working people: 1. Strengthens employees' bargaining rights: The PRO Act adopts new procedures to make sure unions can reach a first contract. To achieve this, it requires: collective bargaining to begin within 10 days of a certified union’s request to do so; mediation if no contract is reached within 90 days; and mandatory arbitration of a two-year contract if no contract is reached through mediation. 2. Holds corporations accountable: By strengthening the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and allowing it to penalize employers who retaliate against working people in support of the union or collective bargaining. The problem is that our basic labor law, which is supposed to protect the rights of workers to form a union and bargain collectively, is broken. In recent decades, employers have been able to violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) with impunity. An entire union-busting industry now works nonstop to block working people from exercising our rights. Today, in more than 40% of all union organizing elections, employers are charged with breaking the law. They lie. They threaten and coerce. They routinely fire union supporters. Workers are forced to attend mandatory meetings with one item on the agenda: union-bashing. These messages of fear and intimidation come from the very people who control our paychecks, how much time we can spend with our families and whether we will have a job tomorrow. And the penalties for employers that engage in this illegal behavior are inconsequential. The PRO Act is the answer because it would fix many of these problems. 3. Increases wages: When union membership is greater, our wages are better. Between 1948 and 1973, when New Deal era laws expanded and enforced collective bargaining, hourly wages rose by more than 90%. But over the next 40 years—from 1973 to 2013—hourly wages rose by just over 9% while productivity increased 74%. As it is, workers are not getting paid a fair share of what we produce. Another expansion of collective bargaining would lead to a similar increase in wages. 4. Increases workplace safety: The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again that belonging to a union can literally be the difference between life and death on the job, especially for workers of color and women who are disproportionately essential workers and have been more likely to lose life, health and employment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing the power of working people to collectively bargain increases wages and would help close wage gaps that have persisted for decades. 5. Addresses inequality: The latest research shows that the rapid growth of unions in the 20th century dramatically reduced inequality by extending the union advantage to more workers, particularly lower-income workers and Black workers, while at the same time raising standards for nonunion workers across entire industries. Growing today’s labor movement is the only policy that has the scale necessary to take us off our current trajectory of ever-growing inequality. Without it, broadly shared prosperity that extends to most working people has virtually no chance. 6. Expands civil rights: The PRO Act is more than labor law reform, it’s civil rights legislation. A union contract is the single best tool we have to close racial and gender wage gaps, and to ensure dignity and due process for workers, regardless of where we were born, who we are or what industry we work in. Removing barriers to organizing and bargaining is important for all workers, especially those who have been marginalized. Expanding collective bargaining will increase protections for women, people of color, immigrants and the LGBTQ community in areas where our laws are still falling short. We need the PRO Act to promote racial justice and eradicate all kinds of discrimination. More than 65% of union members are either women or people of color, and Black workers are the most likely of any demographic group to be union members (13.5%). The decline of unionization has played a significant role in the expansion of the racial wage gap over the past four decades, and an increase in unionization would help reverse this trend. 7. Protects collective action and removes barriers to worker voice: The PRO Act ensures that employers cannot: fire and permanently replace workers who are on strike; lock out, suspend or withhold work from employees to stop them from striking; tell employees that they are independent contractors when they are actually employees; force employees to attend anti-union messaging meetings; change work conditions, pay or benefits while negotiating a union contract; force employees to waive their right to collective and class legal action; or prohibit employees from using work computers for collective action. It also empowers employees to stand in solidarity with other workers through efforts like picketing, striking or boycotting; protects strikes of any duration, scope or frequency; requires employers to notify each new employee of their rights under the NLRA and to post those rights in the workplace; and allows unions to collect fees to cover the expenses of collective bargaining, regardless of state “right to work” laws. 8. Modernizes the union election and enforcement processes: The PRO Act requires employers to provide contact information for all relevant employees before the union elections take place and allows union elections to take place by mail, electronically, or at a convenient location; keeps employers from intervening in administrative hearings on union representation; ensures workers can form commonsense bargaining units; requires the NLRB to order the employer to bargain if the union wins the election, or if the employer interferes with the election and a majority of employees have already designated the union as their desired bargaining representative; pauses union elections when unfair labor practice charges are filed; requires the NLRB to seek a U.S. District Court injunction when employers may have unlawfully fired workers or otherwise interfered with their rights under the NLRA; and makes NLRB orders self-enforcing and appealable within 30 days. It also ensures new elections do not take place if: the union and employer are still bargaining; the employer voluntarily recognized the union; the union and successor employer are just starting to bargain; the time window for filing a petition has closed. 9. Ensures most workers are included under NLRA protections: The PRO Act amends the definition of employer so that entities that control material aspects of employees’ work are actually at the bargaining table. It also adopts a clear test to determine employee status so that workers are not misclassified as independent contractors and therefore unable to organize. It narrows the definition of supervisor so that employees who make routine, commonsense workplace decisions are not excluded from their unions. And it guarantees that workers are eligible for recovery regardless of immigration status. 10. Repeals "right to work" laws: The PRO Act would repeal right to work laws, which are divisive and racist laws created during the Jim Crow era that lead to lower wages, fewer benefits and more dangerous workplaces. 11. Helps fix the economy: The result of growing inequality and a shrinking middle class is an economy that does not work because the vast majority of people lack the incomes or the economic security to consume or invest. Economists are increasingly recognizing that inequality stunts economic growth. We need to grow the labor movement to rebalance the economy, which will be good for growth. 12. Helps fix our democracy: Another consequence of declining worker power and economic failure is that more and more people lose confidence in the system as a whole. To restore that confidence and strengthen our democracy, we need to make the economy work for working people. 13. Gives working people a real say in our future: The PRO Act would reduce inequality, ensuring that workers share in the benefits of future economic growth and the rising productivity that will be fueled by technology, and give workers a say in how technology is deployed in the workplace. The PRO Act also includes specific provisions to correct trends that may be troubling in the future such as employers washing their hands of responsibility toward the workers who make them profitable. Call your senators today at 866-832-1560 and urge them to pass the PRO Act. Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/26/2021 - 10:00 Tags: PRO Act — Apr 26
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Labor, Environmental Advocates Call for High-Paying Electric Vehicle Jobs
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Labor, Environmental Advocates Call for High-Paying Electric Vehicle Jobs Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. Yesterday, ahead of the Leaders Summit on Climate, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and BlueGreen Alliance, along with the UAW and United Steelworkers (USW), released a report highlighting the need to preserve high-paying union jobs in the U.S. auto industry as part of any equitable clean energy transition. The report reviews the economic impacts of the transition to electric vehicles as well as policy options for creating and preserving good union jobs. “As the auto industry continues transitioning to electric vehicles, policymakers have a responsibility to ensure working families aren’t left behind,” said Brad Markell (UAW), executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council. “If we continue on the current path, the heart of American manufacturing will be left at risk. But if we take urgent action, we can combat the climate crisis, build a clean energy economy and ensure that America’s workers have access to good-paying union jobs for generations to come.” Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/26/2021 - 09:31 Tags: Community Service, COVID-19 — Apr 26
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Reacts to the Chauvin Verdict
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Labor Reacts to the Chauvin Verdict Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. On Tuesday, a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. While many in the labor movement were quick to commend the verdict, we also know that the work of racial justice must continue. “Derek Chauvin has been held accountable for murdering George Floyd. While we celebrate today’s verdict, we have so much work ahead of us in order to build a more just state and nation for everyone,” said Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy (UNITE HERE). “Black Minnesotans continue to face police violence. George Floyd and Daunte Wright should still be alive today.” AFL-CIO’s director of civil, human and women’s rights, Clayola Brown, said, “Neither a judge nor a jury can restore the lives of so many people of color who have been taken from us. What a jury can and must do is provide justice to all. That verdict was monumental for our country. We pray that George Floyd’s family finds some peace in this decision. The verdict confirms that if we fight, we can win. There is an appreciation that it’s not just us. The killing must stop, the violence must stop and justice must start.” In the wake of Tuesday’s guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, AFGE is reaffirming its commitment to creating safer and more effective policing policies across the country. “It’s gratifying to see today that a central principle of American justice has been upheld. No one is above the law,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said on Tuesday. “It is my fervent hope that today’s verdict can be a catalyst for positive change, uniting us all in the pursuit of real, systemic criminal justice and policing reforms with broad support that can help us build a future where these killings stop happening.” While no verdict can bring back George Floyd, the jury’s finding in this case is a demonstration of accountability. Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) General President Kenneth Rigmaiden issued a statement on Tuesday: “We know there is so much more work to be done to end systemic racism in this country and the workplace. There can be no justice with rampant economic inequality, a more imprisoned, policed and militarized population than any major country, and one which since its inception has been built on the continued exploitation of Black and Brown workers. Our union stands in solidarity with those who’ve been in the streets demanding true justice and will continue to do so until it’s gotten.” Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 04/23/2021 - 09:45 Tags: Community Service, COVID-19 — Apr 23
  • Black Lives Matter: What Working People Are Doing This Week
    Black Lives Matter: What Working People Are Doing This Week Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week. Actors' Equity: AFGE: AFSCME: Alliance for Retired Americans: Amalgamated Transit Union: American Federation of Teachers: American Postal Workers Union: Association of Flight Attendants-CWA: Boilermakers: Bricklayers: Coalition of Black Trade Unionists: Communications Workers of America: Department for Professional Employees: Electrical Workers: Fire Fighters: Heat and Frost Insulators: International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers: Ironworkers: Jobs With Justice: Labor Council for Latin American Advancement: Laborers: Machinists: Metal Trades Department: Mine Workers: Musical Artists: National Air Traffic Controllers Association: National Association of Letter Carriers: National Day Laborer Organizing Network: National Domestic Workers Alliance: National Federation of Federal Employees: National Nurses United: National Taxi Workers Alliance: NFL Players Association: North America's Building Trades Unions: Office and Professional Employees: Painters and Allied Trades: Plasterers and Cement Masons: Professional Aviation Safety Specialists: Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union: Roofers and Waterproofers: SAG-AFTRA: Solidarity Center: The NewsGuild-CWA: Theatrical Stage Employees: Transport Workers Union: Transportation Trades Department: UAW: Union Label and Service Trades Department: Union Veterans Council: UNITE HERE: United Food and Commercial Workers: United Steelworkers: United Students Against Sweatshops: Utility Workers: Working America: Writers Guild of America, East: Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 04/22/2021 - 11:50 — Apr 22
  • Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Statement on Derek Chauvin’s Conviction
    Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Minnesota AFL-CIO’s Statement on Derek Chauvin’s Conviction Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story. Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bill McCarthy (UNITE HERE) issued the following a jury finding former Officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all counts in the death of George Floyd: “Derek Chauvin has been held accountable for murdering George Floyd. While we celebrate today’s verdict, we have so much work ahead of us in order to build a more just state and nation for everyone. Black Minnesotans continue to face police violence. George Floyd and Daunte Wright should still be alive today. “As Minnesotans, we must continue working so that whether we’re Black or White, Latino or Asian, Indigenous or newcomer, our families are safe, our voices are heard, and our rights are respected. “The Minnesota AFL-CIO is committed to building a more inclusive Labor Movement by listening to and elevating the voices of Minnesota’s Black union members as we work to reimagine public safety. “The Minnesota AFL-CIO and affiliated unions will continue our work to bring racial and economic justice to all workers in our state. That means higher wages through more union jobs, fully funded schools in every zip code, reliable and affordable housing, more access to high quality affordable healthcare, and reimagining public safety in our communities. We must come together as a movement to do this work. We must stand united.” Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 04/22/2021 - 09:32 Tags: COVID-19, Community Service — Apr 22