Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise to oppose the amendment and to commend the Chair for including in the PRO Act provisions that will end the free-rider problem caused by so-called right-to-work States.

Right-to-work provisions undermine the right to unionize because our basic labor law requires a union to represent all those in the bargaining unit, and everyone in the bargaining unit benefits from the union contract. If you tell people you don't have to join, you don't have to pay the union dues, you don't have to pay a fee and you still get all the benefits, then right-to-work is really code for right to free ride.

The result is that States with so-called right-to-work laws have half the private sector unionization rates as other States. It doesn't just hurt those who are in a union because it hurts every wage earner in the whole State. Average wages decline. That is why average wages in so- called right-to-work States are $8,700 less than they are in other States, but it doesn't just affect that whole State. It drives other States to perhaps adopt so-called right-to-work laws in a race to the bottom as they fight for businesses. It even hurts us in California, where we have to compete with low-wage employers in antiunion States.

I have been working on this problem for decades. That is why I introduced the Nationwide Right to Unionize Act in the 110th Congress, the 111th Congress, the 112th Congress, the 113th Congress, the 114th Congress, the 115th Congress, and now the 116th Congress each time with dozens of cosponsors.

Last Congress I was joined by Elizabeth Warren in the Senate where we introduced our bills together. Last week Senator Warren and I each introduced our bills in the House with 30 original cosponsors and the Senate with 16.

The PRO Act is to be commended because it solves this free-rider problem. We had the State Department testify before my subcommittee of Foreign Affairs that so-called right-to-work laws are a violation of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights because the right to organize is a human right, and right-to-work laws make a mockery of that right.

I also rise in opposition to the amendment we are going to be dealing with, No. 10 by Mr. Meadows, which is substantively identical to what we are considering now. The Rules Committee in an effort to be incredibly bipartisan has allowed two substantively identical amendments to be presented to this House. They are both substantively identical. They are both equally reprehensible.

Defeat this amendment. Pass the bill. End the race to the bottom and raise wages nationwide. A country which even last year saw wages rise just 1 percent more than inflation needs unions. We need the right to organize. Pass the bill.

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