Outdated labor laws have hampered our fundamental right to join together and negotiate for better wages, benefits and working conditions. That's why we need the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which will empower America's workers and strengthen our democracy.
In 2019, 5,333 working people were killed on the job and an estimated 95,000 died from occupational diseases, according to the 30th edition of Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect report released today. That means every day, on average, 275 U.S. workers die from hazardous working conditions. And this was before the devastating COVID-19 pandemic that has been responsible for far too many worker infections and deaths in our country.
The U.S. Senate should pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, five human rights and labor groups said today in releasing a question-and-answer document about the issue. The groups—including Human Rights Watch, the AFL-CIO, Amnesty International USA, the Economic Policy Institute and the National Employment Law Project—called on senators to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle rampant economic inequality by empowering workers and building a more just and human rights-based economy.
Few presidents in America’s history have demonstrated a higher commitment to the labor movement than President Biden. “The truth is I’m a union president, and I make no bones about that,” he said on Saturday. “I’m committed to strengthening our unions and rebuilding the backbone of this country—the middle class.” Biden sat down with a UAW local president and talked about his administration’s policies to promote American manufacturing.
Yesterday, ahead of the Leaders Summit on Climate, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and BlueGreen Alliance, along with the UAW and United Steelworkers (USW), released a report highlighting the need to preserve high-paying union jobs in the U.S. auto industry as part of any equitable clean energy transition. The report reviews the economic impacts of the transition to electric vehicles as well as policy options for creating and preserving good union jobs.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—first passed in the 1930s—is supposed to provide workers protection from anti-union retaliation in the pursuit of organizing and collective bargaining. However, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that the NLRA is no longer up to the task of protecting workers from anti-union actions by our employers.
On Tuesday, a jury found former police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. While many in the labor movement were quick to commend the verdict, we also know that the work of racial justice must continue.
