Washington, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and bipartisan House and Senate Members to introduce the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a comprehensive proposal to protect workers’ right to come together and bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces.
“Too many Coloradans feel left out of our economy, which works really well for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations, but does not support working people and their families,” said Bennet. “Strong unions are key to building an economy that when it grows, it grows for everyone. We need to pass the PRO Act to ensure workers have the freedom to unionize and attain more economic opportunity for themselves and their families.”
“The PRO Act is how we level the playing field. It is how we stop the intimidation, the lies. This is how we let workers, not wealthy corporations, decide for themselves if they want the power of a union,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.
Large corporations and the wealthy continue to capture the rewards of a growing economy while working families and middle-class Americans are left behind. From 1979 to 2020, annual wages for the bottom 90 percent of households increased just 26 percent, while average incomes for the wealthiest 1 percent increased more than 160 percent.
Unions are critical to growing a strong middle class and creating an economy that rewards hardworking people. Studies show that union members earn, on average, 10 percent more than those with similar education, occupation, and experience in a non-union workplace.
Specifically, the PRO Act:
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Holds employers accountable for violating workers’ rights by authorizing meaningful penalties, facilitating initial collective bargaining agreements, and closing loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors.
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Empowers workers to exercise their right to organize by strengthening support for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights, protecting workers’ right to support secondary boycotts, ensuring workers can collect “fair share” fees, and authorizing a private right of action for violation of workers’ rights.
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Secures free, fair, and safe union elections by preventing employers from interfering in union elections, prohibiting captive audience meetings, and requiring employers to be transparent with their workers.
According to a 2022 Gallup poll, 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions—the highest that Gallup has recorded since 1965. Despite growing support for unions, decades of anti-union attacks have made it harder for workers to organize. Union membership has fallen to a new low of 10.1 percent in 2022. The PRO Act restores fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal laws that protect workers’ right to join a union and bargain for higher pay, better benefits, and safer workplaces.
The text of the bill is available HERE. A summary of the bill is available HERE.