“Everything is on the table as far as we are concerned.”
Only five Republicans voted for the measure: co-sponsors Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith (NJ) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Along with representatives John Katko (NY) and Don Young (Alaska). One Democrat voted against: Henry Cuellar (Texas), an aide said.
The project’s progress concludes several days of behind-the-scenes disputes with Democratic leaders after a group of moderate members pushed for last-minute changes to the project. On Monday night, the top Democrats agreed to include an amendment that would study the project’s impact on concert workers, which the center block – led by Congresswoman Blue Dog Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida), voted against. project in the last session – described as a win.
“There were some concerns about the flexibility aspect of the PRO Act, and if people could choose not to meet their personal needs and circumstances,” Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), Who was among those who supported the change, said POLITICO.
This change, said Wild, would help address some of the many concerns in the Senate, adding, “There is a way to do this if we all really focus on it and don’t insist on being purists.”
“If people need to do things to support the bill, I’m fine with that,” said Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.). “I don’t see that as a big change.”
The legislation – which would make it easier for workers to join and form unions by empowering the National Council for Labor Relations to collect fines and extend collective bargaining rights to independent contractors – is a real-time example of the fine line that Biden he must go on as he works to appease the pro-union forces he has allied with and the business groups that helped him win.
“People are realizing that unions are important,” Bobby Scott (D-Va.), President of Education and Labor, told POLITICO. “They realized this during the pandemic, when there were unfair and unsafe working conditions.”
Companies, fiercely opposed to the PRO Law, spent the days leading up to its approval lobbying against it. More than 150 trade associations, including the influential Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to lawmakers last week urging them to vote against the legislation, which they wrote “would cost millions of American jobs, threaten vital supply chains and greatly reduce opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses. “
Employers “have deep concerns about the PRO Act’s intrusions into worker privacy and restrictions on communication in the workplace – among many other issues,” said Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers. and more difficult to promote positive and inclusive work cultures. “
Republicans echo many of the same concerns, fearing that the bill – which Deputy Virginia Foxx, the main Republican on the House’s Education and Work Committee, has dubbed the Union Chiefs Act – will cost employers and eliminate jobs. They also question the fact that the bill would prevail over state labor rights laws, which guarantee that no worker can be forced to join a union or pay fees as a condition of employment.
It is “a wish list from the left with the priorities of union leaders that undermines workers’ rights by forcing them to pay into the union system, whether or not they want to be represented by a union,” Foxx said.
The PRO Act “is yet another attack on the rights of states,” said Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa). Iowa is a state with a right to work.
The unions have put their weight on the legislation, which leaders have repeatedly described as one of their top priorities for the Biden government. In fact, the executive board of the AFL-CIO – the country’s largest union federation – plans to meet on Wednesday to discuss its position on removing the obstruction, probably the only way forward to see the PRO Act enacted.
“I assume that [Senate passage] it requires getting rid of the obstructionist, for sure, or finding a way around it, ”said Levin.
Senate HELP President Patty Murray (D-Wash.) Told POLITICO that she plans to “fight hard to ensure that we honor the essential workers who kept us going during this pandemic, making the PRO Act cross the finish line”.
“As workers continue to bear the brunt of this pandemic, ensuring that they can stay together and fight for better wages, quality health, a safer workplace and a safe retirement has never been more important,” she said.
Before approval, lawmakers adopted a package of Democratic amendments containing the Murphy amendment, among others. They rejected a set of republican amendments.
The move coincides with Amazon workers’ continued effort to form a union at one of the retail giant’s facilities in Alabama. Biden was remarkably silent on the subject until February, when he released a video expressing support for organized work. Despite refusing to mention the name of Amazon, it was nevertheless hailed as the most pro-union statement by an incumbent US president.
The House first introduced the bill in February 2020, after it languished for months amid many of the same concerns that floated in this session: concerns from moderate Democrats that it was anti-business and relentless attack by groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, which labeled it “a litany of almost all the failed ideas of the past 30 years of labor policy.” But it was never taken on by the then Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
Biden pledged during the campaign that he would see the legislation enacted and reiterated his support for the legislation on Monday with an Administrative Policy Statement encouraging the House’s approval.
“We must all remember that the National Labor Relations Law did not just say that we must not harm unions or simply tolerate them. He said we should encourage the unions, ”said Biden in a statement on Tuesday. “The PRO Act would take critical steps to help restore this intention.”
“We have a champion who, more than any of his recent predecessors, understands that work is not just another constituency that exists only during campaign cycles, and his rhetoric during the campaign has been taken to the Oval Office,” he said. Trumka. “This is a president who takes the chance to tell a room full of CEOs that he is a union member. He released the most pro-union statement of any president since FDR and yesterday decided to double the positions. “
“To borrow a slightly adjusted quote from Joe Biden, this is a big deal.”
Unions have been struggling to pass labor law reform since 1947, when a Republican Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act and, in doing so, made changes to the National Labor Relations Law that labor advocates consider anti-union. But efforts have not yet been successful.
Even under former President Barack Obama, a package containing many provisions similar to the PRO Act – the Employee Free Choice Act – has stalled in Congress while his administration has focused its efforts on other areas.