Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Income inequality is challenging our communities and our future. In northwest Oregon and across the country, the labor movement has helped fight income inequality, raise wages, improve working conditions, and expand benefits.

More workers would join a union if given a choice, but many feel retaliation for supporting or engaging in organizing efforts. Under current law, tactics to intimidate, coerce, or fire workers involved in union organizing are illegal, but the penalties aren't strong enough to deter employers.

I helped ban captive audience meetings when I served in the Oregon legislature, but these rights should be protected for every worker in the country. We should be making it easier, not harder, for workers to form unions and collectively bargain.

I am an original cosponsor of Chairman Scott's Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Under this bill, employers who break the rules will finally be held accountable.

Today, by supporting the bipartisan PRO Act, we can support workers, restore fairness, and help to make sure our economy works for everyone.

Mr. Chairman, I insert in the Record letters in support of the PRO Act from the BlueGreen Alliance and more than 70 environmental groups. BlueGreen Alliance, January 31, 2020. Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy: As a coalition of some of the nation's largest labor unions and environmental organizations, collectively representing millions of members and supporters, we write to express the BlueGreen Alliance's support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2019, H.R. 2474.

In the United States, we face a critical juncture for the rights of employees to organize. As Supreme Court cases and anti-union legislators and their financial backers seek to strip workers of their rights, we need a strong law on the books to ensure that workers are not penalized for organizing and demanding collective bargaining for higher wages, safer working conditions, and better benefits.

Union membership has fallen dramatically from 33 percent in 1956 to ten percent in 2018, due in large part to exploitation by employers of labor laws that have been made toothless. As it stands, no meaningful penalties exist for corporations using illegal tactics to eliminate the option to organize.

Additionally, workers now are facing record wage inequality, and we know based on the National Bureau of Economic Research's statistics that unions consistently provide working Americans with ten to twenty percent higher wages than non-unionized workers. Empowering workers to band together to negotiate better wages and safer working conditions is the best path forward to protecting our workers and rebuilding America's middle class.

Organizing does not just affect job quality, though: unionized workers are better equipped to handle potentially hazardous workplace situations, and have more freedom to blow the whistle in dangerous situations. This can avert industrial accidents and result in safer communities, as well as cleaner air and water. Many unions also take firm positions on environmental issues because they understand the impact that clean air and water have on workers. Unions have supported the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and other actions designed to both reduce the carbon pollution driving climate change and grow good-paying jobs in the clean economy.

The PRO Act empowers employees by strengthening workers' rights to bargain and to organize. It does so by ending prohibitions on collective and class-action litigation, prohibiting employers from permanently replacing striking employees, amending how employees are defined so that no one is misclassified as an independent contractor, strengthening remedies and enforcement for employees who are exercising their rights, creating a mediation and arbitration process for new unions, protecting against coercive captive audience meetings, and streamlining the National Labor Relations Board's procedures.

The PRO Act would take tangible steps to stem the tide of continued violations of the rights of working people to organize and would provide real consequences for those who violate the rights of workers. We must restore fairness to our economy so that workers no longer get a raw deal, and strengthen the right of workers all over the country to unionize and bargain for better working conditions.

For these reasons, the BlueGreen Alliance urges you to vote yes on the PRO Act.

Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Jason Walsh, Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance. ____ 5 February 2020.

Dear Representative: As organizations dedicated to a sustainable future, we believe that such a future must include fair treatment for the people and communities working to build a clean and thriving economy. For that reason, we support H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and urge you to vote in favor of the bill when it comes before the House this week.

Since 1970, global carbon dioxide emissions have nearly doubled, spiking the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, increasing the risk of drought, and putting the future of our entire planet at risk. Over that same period, income and wealth inequality have exploded in the United States and elsewhere--incomes have risen by 229% in the U.S. for the top 1% of earners since 1979, while the bottom 90% of households have seen income growth of just 46%, or 1% on an annual basis. These parallel trends reflect an economy built to serve the interests of a small group of the extremely wealthy and powerful, not people or the planet.

One key element of fixing our broken economic system is ensuring that working people have a voice in the economy and earn a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Workers are often unable to have their voices heard or to earn fair pay, a function of weak labor laws that have made it virtually impossible for workers to organize and form unions in the face of unrelenting, aggressive corporate opposition.

The PRO Act would make common-sense changes to existing law to enable workers who want to organize and form unions to do so. It would penalize corporations that break the law, limit tactics used to intimidate workers, help workers who organize secure timely collective bargaining agreements, and institute a number of changes to better enable workers to act in solidarity with one another.

Remaking our economy and environment to address climate change and rising inequality will require substantial investment and transition, across many sectors. This is an opportunity to create millions of good jobs with family- sustaining wages and strong worker protections. We need strong, common-sense worker protections like those in the PRO Act to ensure that a sustainable economy reverses rather than reinforces rising inequity. There is no way to build a greener, more inclusive economy without strong, thriving labor unions.

Our planet and our communities are under enormous threat. We must act urgently to confront the dangers imposed by climate change, including by ensuring that working people are treated fairly and helping lead the transition to a fair, green economy. The PRO Act would help advance that goal and help us rebuild our economy to function for both people and the planet. Therefore, we urge you to vote in favor of the PRO Act. Sincerely,

ActionAid USA, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Already Devalued & Devastated Homeowners of Parsippany, Asian Pacific Planning & Policy Council Environmental Justice Committee, Athens County Future Action Network, Beyond Extreme Energy, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Climate Change & Health, Center for International Environmental Law, Citizens For Water.

Citizens' Resistance at Fermi Two, Climate Action Rhode Island, Climate Hawks Vote, Climate Mobilization Project, Coalition Against Pilgrim Pipeline NJ, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, The Democracy Collaborative, Earthworks, Faithful America, Food & Water Action.

Fox Valley Citizens for Peace & Justice, Franciscan Action Network, Friends of Buckingham, Friends of the Earth, Great Lakes Water Protectors, Green America, Green For All, Greenpeace USA, Harford County Climate Action, Idle No More SF Bay.

Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program, Jewish Climate Action Network--Massachusetts, League of Conservation Voters, Long Beach 350, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Louisiana Rise, Miami Climate Alliance, Mothers Out Front.

Natural Resources Defense Council, North Country 350 Alliance, Nuclear Information & Resource Service, NYH2O, Oil Change International, Organic Consumers Association, Peoples Climate Movement--New York, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania.

Plymouth Friends of Clean Water, Public Citizen, Safe Climate Campaign, Safe Energy Rights Group, Save the Pine Bush, Seeding Sovereignty, Sierra Club, SoCal 350 Climate Action.

Stand.earth, Sunflower Alliance, Sunrise Bay Area, Sunrise Movement, Toxics Action Center, Unitarian Universalist Mass Action, Washtenaw350, Wendell State Forest Alliance.

350.org, 350 Colorado, 350 DC, 350 Deschutes, 350 Kishwaukee, 350 Loudon, 350 Merced, 350 New Hampshire, 350 Wenatchee, 350 West Sound Climate Action.

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Scott for his leadership. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).

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