Steel Markets

PRO Act 2021: Worker Benefit or Liability?

March 8, 2021

The PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize Act) will begin debate in the U.S. House this week. The legislation, voted down in previous years, would change long-established labor laws that not everyone believes will benefit employees and the industries in which they work.

Among those critical of the legislation is the Associated General Contractors of America, which maintains that the act will “undermine worker privacy, hurt their ability to earn a living and unleash a new wave of labor unrest that will undermine the economic recovery.”

The PRO Act will give unions virtually all the leverage in collective bargaining and unionizing efforts, contends AGC, the lobbying group representing contractors who employ construction workers.

The act is particularly anti-construction in that workers could halt construction projects due to changes that allow “secondary boycotts,” picketing against any employer regardless of whether a labor dispute with the union exists. This could include strikes to prevent employers from doing business with non-union companies, as well as allowing partial, intermittent and slow-down strikes.

The act would also severely curtail independent contract employees, AGC says. The PRO Act’s intention is to protect contract and freelance workers by forcing companies to grant them employee status and provide benefits. AGC and others, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say that such measures, to the contrary, would frustrate attempts for entrepreneurial workers to establish their own businesses and would prohibit businesses from hiring independent contractors.

To make it easier for unions to solicit members and organize, the PRO Act directs employers to release employee personal information to unions, says AGC. Such measures would be a direct affront to employee privacy. In addition, the voting procedures for unionization would require employees to publicly reveal their support, or non-support, for the union, potentially leaving them open to harassment or coercion and threatens the “right to a free, fair and secret” union ballot.

AGC calls the PRO Act “anti-recovery” and says it will disrupt the balance between unions and employers. “This new dynamic will give unions broad latitude and incentives to initiate strikes, work slowdowns, sick outs, pickets and other disruptive protests to exert maximum influence on collective bargaining, intra-union jurisdictional disputes and other economic transactions. It will be hard for the economy to recover if workplaces across the country are subject to sudden, unpredictable and recurring labor actions.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also denounced the PRO Act. “The legislation, which claims to be pro-worker, would force employees to pay union dues regardless of whether they support a union,” says the Chamber.

“It’s disappointing to see members of Congress reintroduce this harmful piece of legislation,” said Glen Spencer, the Chamber’s Senior Vice President of the Employment Policy Division. “This legislation strips workers of their privacy, threatens private ballots, imposes California’s disastrous independent contractor test, jeopardizes employers’ right to free speech, and threatens the loss of a job should workers choose not to pay union dues. This bill is a threat to America’s workers, employers, and our economy.”

Two fact sheets, linked here, contrast the issues within the PRO Act. The first is from the House Education & Labor Committee, the second is from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.