Bill targeting 'right-to-work' laws set for House vote
The bill is supposed to come up for a vote this week
Wall Street Journal opinion writer Jillian Melchior discusses the dip in union membership due to the reported poor working conditions and corruption cases.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on a bill that would end "right-to-work" provisions enacted by 27 states — but the bill's critics say it is too similar to California's embattled gig worker law.
House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., introduced the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act in May.
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"Evidence and experience demonstrate that labor unions are one of the most powerful tools workers have to improve the standard of living for themselves and their families," Scott said in a statement after introducing the bill. "However, there are currently no meaningful penalties for predatory corporations that use unlawful tactics to discourage workers from organizing a union. The PRO Act is a comprehensive proposal to ensure that workers have the right to stand together and negotiate for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions."
The bill would roll back a long-standing amendment to the National Labor Relations Act, which permits such "right-to-work" laws that let employees opt out of joining unions.
The Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Like California's Assembly Bill 5, the PRO Act's stated purpose is to end worker misclassification. AB5 went after companies like Uber and Doordash, which categorize drivers as "independent contractors" and do not give them the same benefits as full-time employees.
AB5 tries to force companies to offer Californians full-time jobs and traditional benefits instead of gig work. But many Californians are calling for AB5 to be repealed after it spooked companies employing freelance writers, actors and others into pulling out of the state.
The PRO Act has more than 200 cosponsors in the House, but it is unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Senate. Still, concerned groups like the American Action Forum have crunched the numbers on the PRO Act.
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"The PRO Act would create a national version of California's AB5 — a three-part test for recategorizing contractors as employees — and that is just one of the PRO Act's over 20 provisions that together put GDP growth, small businesses and workers at risk," American Action Forum labor policy analyst Isabel Soto told FOX Business.
The PRO Act would lead to $17.2 billion to $33.3 billion in lost annual output for the franchise business sector, complicate many business-to-business arrangements and cause particular harm to small businesses, according to Soto's analysis.
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Virginia resident Gabriella Hoffman, a freelance writer who focuses on politics and the outdoors, told FOX Business she does not think the PRO Act will help her.
"If it passes, it would be an unmitigated disaster, and I will have to re-evaluate how I run my consulting business and end long-term contracts with companies I enjoy working with," Hoffman said.
Meanwhile, government statistics show that union membership dipped slightly last year despite Americans' growing approval of labor unions that nearly reached a 50-year high.