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The PRO Act: Good for Workers and Good for Business

Rep. Mark Pocan and Kenneth Rigmaiden
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For decades, working families could depend on labor unions to represent their collective interests -- ensuring a living wage, better benefits and a voice in their workplace. Now, after 50 years of rollbacks on union and labor rights, workers have been silenced at their jobs. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is an opportunity for Congress to give working families their voice back.

The PRO Act is about guaranteeing democracy and civility in the workplace. It protects workers who are trying to organize a union — a right they have by law — and penalizes employers for interfering in their right to form a union. It draws a much-needed line in the sand to strengthen workers’ rights to conduct organizing campaigns, hold fair elections and get to the bargaining table quickly. Without these protections, the playing field will remain heavily stacked against workers.

Ironically, workers trying to form a union are fighting for what the employer should be doing on its own — making sure workers and worksites are safe, ensuring its workers are properly trained to do the best job they can, paying workers fairly and treating its workforce with decency, civility and respect. The PRO Act gives workers the necessary protections to pursue these goals.

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