Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, as we gather here today to pass the PRO Act, we are engaged in a great act of patriotism for our country.
The middle class is the backbone of our democracy. The middle class in America has a union label on it. So as we move to strengthen collective bargaining and the rest, we are strengthening our middle class and our democracy. For that reason, I rise with great pride as the House takes this historic patriotic step forward for our workers and for justice and fairness in America.
I thank Chairman Bobby Scott, the chair of the Education and Labor Committee, for his leadership in the PRO Act, among other things, and his lifelong dedication to fighting for working families.
That is what unifies us as Democrats. With all of our differences, our unity springs from our commitment to making progress for America's working families.
This progress is possible, because just over 4 months ago, Americans went to the polls and elected President Biden, a champion of workers, whose commitment to families' health and financial security is in his DNA.
The elected Democratic majorities in Congress know that unions are the backbone of our Nation. And as I have said for many years, the middle class has a union label on it. It bears repeating.
Now, House Democrats are honoring that truth by, tomorrow, passing the American Rescue Plan, which honors our heroes, healthcare workers, first responders, transportation, sanitation, food workers, and our teachers, many of them members of unions.
Today, we are passing the crown jewel of our pro-worker agenda, the PRO Act.
Again, under the American Rescue Plan, we have a very significant provision for pensions.
The PRO Act restores and strengthens the powers of unions to fight for better wages and working conditions, which is both a moral and economic imperative for building back better--building back our economy better.
Unions pave the way for bigger paychecks for all, over the last 80 years, consistently providing workers with 10 to 20 percent higher wages, benefits so strong that even nonunion workers receive better wages.
Unions deliver greater access to affordable healthcare and a secure retirement. Workers represented by a union are significantly more likely to have access to health insurance through work and five times as likely to have a defined benefit pension--and that, with Mr. Scott's leadership, is a significant part of the American Rescue Plan, which we will pass either later today, depending on how long it takes in the Rules Committee, or tomorrow at the latest.
Vitally, unions are a force for justice. Union members of color have almost five times the median wealth of their nonunion counterparts, and unions are one of the most effective tools for closing the gender pay gap. That is something I am so proud of and so grateful to organized labor for, because they have done more to close the gender pay gap than any organization you can name, except possibly, pretty soon, this Congress may vote to have equal pay for equal work. That is something we have passed in the House; hopefully, we can pass it in the Senate.
Yet today, unions face a brutal and existential assault waged from courthouses, State houses, and even this House: from the disastrous Supreme Court ruling in Janus, which trampled over the freedoms of more than 17 million public workers; to so-called right-to-work laws, which give employers the right to gut unions; to the GOP tax scam, giving 83 percent of the benefits to corporations and the wealthy and raising taxes on 86 million middle-class families.
Let me just say that that GOP tax scam, which cost about $1.9 trillion--I will talk about this later, but I want to mention it here every chance I get. Their tax scam cost about $1.9 trillion, exactly what this bill invests in, and this bill takes half the kids in America who are poor, out of poverty, a third of the people in poverty out of poverty, invests in working-class families, puts vaccines in people's arms, children back in school safely, money in people's pockets, and, again, people back to work. It is something that will grow the economy, as opposed to their tax scam, which just heaped mountains of debt onto future generations.
They didn't complain when it cost $1.9 trillion to give a tax break to the rich. They are just complaining when we are trying to lift the American people up in the time of a pandemic, as well as the economic crisis that accompanies it.
At the same time of all this, workers seeking to organize a union face a surge of intimidation and retaliation from the employers and special interests. In fact, employers are charged with violating Federal law in the majority of all union election campaigns involving more than 60 employees. In one out of five union election campaigns, employers are charged with illegally firing a worker participating in a union activity. Year in and year out, big corporate employers get away with their crimes. No accountability, no consequence; just full impunity.
We must strengthen the power of unions to negotiate for what they need and deserve, which is why, today, we are passing the PRO Act, because what they need and deserve is what America's workers need and deserve.
The most comprehensive, consequential pro-worker legislation in over 80 years, the PRO Act empowers workers to exercise their basic right to organize, including by giving workers the power to override right-to- work laws and streamlining access to justice for workers who are retaliated against.
It holds employers accountable, reversing an unacceptable status quo in which there are no monetary penalties for companies that violate workers' rights, no matter how repeated or egregious the violation.
And it strengthens workers' access to fair and free union elections, fixing a process that is fundamentally rigged against workers so that they, not employers, can decide for themselves whether to join a union.
This legislation will make a tremendous difference in workers' lives, helping combat the acceleration of economic inequality that undermines the middle class, which has only grown worse over the past year.
In this past year, the rich have gotten so much richer. Let me tell you how much. During the first 4 months of the pandemic, while workers suffered record high unemployment, Mr. Speaker, American billionaires' wealth grew by $931 billion. Extraction of money to the top.
The PRO Act is part of the Democrats' mission not only to recover from this time of crisis, but to Build Back Better, advancing an economy that works for every American in every ZIP Code.
As the AFL-CIO, representing over 12 million workers, writes, ``In the midst of a global pandemic, which has killed tens of thousands of frontline workers, it is more important than ever that working people have the right to rely on the protection of a union contract. The PRO Act will level the playing field to give workers a fair shot when fighting for improvements on the job . . . The PRO Act is the first step to restoring our middle class.''
As we pass the PRO Act, Democrats will continue our work to pass a $15 minimum wage, secure paycheck fairness for women--that is coming up in a couple of weeks--protect pensions--tomorrow--and lower healthcare costs and increase paychecks for all.
I have a sweater that one of my friends gave me, and it says ``We don't agonize, we organize.'' So I want to also embroider on there, ``We don't agonize, we organize, we unionize,'' because that is the way that we are going to level the playing field for America's workers.
For America's workers and middle class and for the financial security of all Americans, I urge a strong bipartisan vote on the PRO Act.
I thank the gentleman again, our distinguished chair, Mr. Scott, for his leadership.
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