Statement | Unions and Labor Standards

News from EPI The PRO Act is a crucial step toward restoring workers’ rights on the job

The ability of working people to join together to negotiate with their employer for higher wages and better working conditions is a fundamental right—but for decades that right has been eroding, as employers exploit weaknesses in the law and interfere with workers’ rights, and face no real consequences for doing so. The result has been stagnant wages, unsafe workplaces, and rising inequality. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act will go a long way toward restoring workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively by streamlining the process when workers form a union, ensuring that they are successful in negotiating a first agreement, and holding employers accountable when they violate workers’ rights. The PRO Act is an important effort to bring U.S. labor law into the 21st century—giving working people more power at a time when it is desperately needed. Congress should pass the PRO Act immediately and give working people what they need most: fairness and a voice on the job.