Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

Workers, especially people of color, built this country, and they have kept it afloat. Never has that truth been more evident than now, as we grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite their essential roles in our society, though, we have seen workers' rights systematically suppressed for decades, including the fundamental right to ban together to organize and to advocate for fair treatment, for fair pay, and benefits for safe and healthy work environments, and for the respect and dignity they are due as working people, let alone the backbone of our economy.

But, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, let's be clear. This is not just about fairness. It is about justice, economic justice. Workers, especially women and people of color, have driven economic growth in this country, but have seen the fruit of their labor concentrating and accumulating in the hands of the wealthiest. In other words, their work, their sacrifice has not trickled down.

Enough is enough. Workers deserve their share. They deserve justice. I strongly support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Laborers' International Union of North America. LiUNA,

Washington, DC, March 8, 2021.
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Representative: On behalf of the 500,000 members of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA), I write to ask you to support H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, when it comes to the House floor for a vote. The right to join a union is critical to ensure that workers receive fair pay and benefits and safe jobsites. The PRO Act will expand the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to ensure that workers and unions have real, enforceable protections under the law.

One of the most significant problems with the NLRA is the absence of effective remedies for workers against employers who break the law. Often, employers fire union supporters to defeat union organizing efforts, knowing that the penalty is low, only lost wages, and even that is reduced by the amount the worker earns on any other work that he or she finds after getting fired. H.R. 842 will address this serious problem by authorizing the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to impose penalties of up to $50,000 for unfair labor practices.

The PRO Act strengthens enforcement of the NLRA in other important ways. For example, the PRO Act allows workers to exercise First Amendment rights to free speech against so- called secondary employers. It strengthens workers' and unions' representational rights and protects immigrants' labor rights. Significantly, it adopts the so-called ABC test for distinguishing employees from independent contractors. Under the Bill, a person is an independent contractor only if the individual is free from the employer's control and direction, the service is outside the normal course of the employer's business, and the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade or business. H.R. 842 will also prevent employers from misclassifying workers as supervisors and will establish that employers with control over employees are held responsible for their actions in the workplace, including users of temp agencies. This addresses an important circumstance, since three million people are employed daily by temp agencies. The PRO Act would also ban captive audience meetings, giving workers the power and freedom to decide for themselves if union representation is right for them. Importantly, the PRO Act would push back on the recent so-called right to work laws, which harm unions and our members, by allowing unions to recover fair share fees covering the costs of collective bargaining and representation.

For these reasons, and for the many other improvements to labor law in the Bill, LIUNA supports the PRO Act and asks you to vote yes when it comes to the House floor.

With kind regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Terry O'Sullivan, General President.

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