Contact: R.J. Hufnagel, rhufnagel@usw.org, 412-562-2450
The letter, written by USW District 7 Director Mike Millsap, urged Bost to support the proposed legislation, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 2474), which would remove unnecessary and overly burdensome barriers to union organizing and establish stronger penalties for companies that illegally block unionizing drives.
“This bipartisan piece of legislation remedies the inequality and exploitation of workers and helps to secure their rightful voices in the workplace,” Millsap wrote in the letter. “The PRO Act ensures worker access to justice.”
The legislation, introduced last year by Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, would represent a major step forward for workers’ rights and would restore a number of worker protections contained in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which corporations and anti-union lawmakers have slowly eroded over the years.
“The correlation between inequality and federal policy decisions which have stripped workers of their collective power cannot be emphasized enough,” wrote Millsap, who represents thousands of USW members in the states of Illinois and Indiana. “The PRO Act pulls away from decades of exploitation, unsafe working conditions, stagnant wages, and benefits.”
The House Education and Labor Committee passed the PRO Act (H.R. 2474) in September 2019, and the full House is expected to debate and vote on the bill in the coming weeks.
To read the full letter, visit the following link: http://usw.to/359.
The USW represents 850,000 men and women employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.