USW president Tom Conway appeared on The Leslie Marshall Show to talk about Mitch McConnell’s ‘graveyard’ Senate, which has ignored more than 400 bills from the U.S. House in the past year.
A number of bills in particular would help improve conditions for U.S. workers, including the Butch Lewis Act, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act and the Raise the Wage Act.
“A significant amount of legislation has gone over to the Senate, important legislation, and it just dies there,” said Conway. “The House has passed it and it just sits over there in the Senate.”
Conway also touched on the importance of Congress passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a key bill the House is expected to vote on next month which would eliminate penalties for union organizing, among other protections for workers.
“We need laws to protect workers’ ability to join together collectively and to be able to sit across the table from their employer and have responsible discussions about fair distribution of the profits that they make,” said Conway.
The PRO Act will likely pass in the House, but the Senate has already signaled that it intends to ignore the bill.
With no effort to compromise and no intention to hold a vote, Senate Republicans have sent a message to workers that they aren’t interested in helping American people with urgent issues such as workplace safety, troubled pension plans or fair wages.
“Americans have a right to know that, once something goes over to the Senate, nothing happens,” Conway said. “Typically, by now a Congress will have passed 300 to 500 bills. This Senate has passed 70 bills.”
For the entire interview about the Senate’s inaction on key pro-worker bills, click below: