(Ken Silva, Headline USA) States that prohibit mandatory union membership have consistently outpaced non-Right to Work states in manufacturing output and GDP growth, according to data from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.
Despite this, Democrats are again pushing legislation that would eliminate every single state Right to Work law in America. After failing to pass the bill in 2020 and 2021, left-leaning lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., have reintroduced the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.
The National Right to Work Committee has warned that the PRO Act would radically overhaul the country’s economy—for the worse.
“Right to Work brings freedom to American workers, accountability to American unions and jobs to American cities,” the organization said in a legislative analysis.
“The [PRO Act] seeks to rob [26] states of the benefits that their Right to Work laws have produced, and would preclude other states from also protecting their workers from forced fees.”
The PRO Act contains other provisions that are harmful to workers, according to the National Right to Work Committee. Those include provisions that would empower the National Labor Relations Board to unilaterally overturn a workplace election, prohibit businesses from using replacement workers and drastically limiting who can be classified as an independent contractor.
“The [PRO Act] is chock-full of provisions that, on their own, should each be enough to vote against the legislation,” National Right to Work Committee said.
“Taken as a whole, this Big Labor wish list amounts to nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for American workers and for our economy.”
The PRO Act faces a markup session in the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions later this month.
National Right to Work Committee’s vice president of legislation, Greg Mourad, said that luckily, the PRO Act has little chance of making it through this Congress. Voting for this “ridiculous big labor idea” would be political suicide for Democrats in Right to Work states, according to Mourad.
“If they could actually pass it, they might make that sacrifice. But they’re not going to cut their own throats for no reason,” he said.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
