Baldwin Joins Colleagues to Introduce PRO Act to Protect Workers’ Right to Organize and Make Economy Work for Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, joined a bipartisan group of colleagues to reintroduce the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, comprehensive labor legislation to protect workers’ right to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces.

“Wisconsin has a proud tradition of respecting hard work and rewarding it by giving workers a strong voice. But in recent years, we’ve seen wealthy corporate interests attack workers’ rights and undermine labor law, often in order to pad their already record profits. The result has been growing wealth inequality, a shrinking middle class, and working families left without a voice,” said Senator Baldwin. “This legislation takes bold action to respect and reward Wisconsinites hard work, empowering them to fight for fair pay, a safe workplace, quality health care, and the dignity of a secure retirement that they have earned.”

The PRO Act would reverse years of attacks on unions and restore fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal laws that protect workers’ right to join a union and bargain for higher wages and better benefits. The PRO Act would protect the right to organize and collectively bargain by:

• Bolstering remedies and punishing violations of workers’ rights through authorizing meaningful penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights, strengthening support for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights, and authorizing a private right of action for violation of workers’ rights.
• Strengthening workers’ right to join together and negotiate for better working conditions by enhancing workers’ right to support secondary boycotts, ensuring unions can collect “fair share” fees, modernizing the union election process, and facilitating initial collective bargaining agreements.
• Restoring fairness to an economy rigged against workers by closing loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors and increasing transparency in labor-management relations.

The bicameral legislation was led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

For the bill text of the PRO Act, click here.

For a fact sheet on the PRO Act, click here.

For a section-by-section summary of the PRO Act, click here.

An online version of this release is available here.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.