What Would the PRO Act Do?

If we want to build our power in the workplace, we must make passing the PRO Act in the Senate our top priority. The PRO Act would remove many common obstacles that stand in the way of workers joining together in unions and ban some of the most commonly deployed union-busting tactics, like captive audience meetings. Once workers decide to form a union, the PRO Act would make it harder for employers to stall at the bargaining table and allow workers to engage in more powerful strikes.

For the next few weeks, we will be highlighting a portion of the PRO Act and what it would do for workers in the CWA newsletter.

The PRO Act would prevent employer interference with union elections.

Right now, the worker protections established in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) are totally inadequate. These laws were originally designed to ensure that workers can exercise their rights to organize unions and bargain collectively with their employer, but many of the coercive tactics that employers use to discourage workers from joining a union are still technically legal.

When workers decide to organize, companies often hold "captive audience" meetings, forcing workers to attend hours-long meetings to be berated and intimidated by management. Employers use these meetings as an opportunity to present misleading anti-union propaganda to pressure workers to vote against the union. Under current law, employees who refuse to attend captive audience meetings can be fired by their employers.

The PRO Act would address this issue by updating the NLRA to prohibit employers from requiring their employees to attend "captive audience" meetings or participate in anti-union activities. The bill would also give the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the power to set union election procedures, which would stop employers from being able to rig these procedures and set up organizing efforts to fail.

Tell your Senators to support the PRO Act at actionnetwork.org/letters/senateproact.

Check back next week for more PRO Act highlights!