VIDEO: With Michigan Close to Repealing “Right to Work,” Peters Urges Congress to Pass Bill to Protect Workers’ Right to Organize

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) today spoke on the Senate floor to call on Congress to pass the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, comprehensive legislation to protect workers’ right to stand together and bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. The PRO Act, named after the late, former AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, would reverse years of attacks on unions and restore fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal laws that protect workers’ right to join a union and bargain for higher wages and better benefits. Peters’ speech comes as the Michigan Legislature has advanced legislation to repeal the state’s right-to-work laws and strengthen organized labor in the state. While the state’s efforts are important, a federal law would empower workers across the country.

“…Labor unions…expand and empower the middle class…In order to keep building an economy that works for everyone, we need to take a lesson from my home state of Michigan. We need to breathe new life into American unions. And we need to pass the PRO Act,” said Senator Peters, who grew up in a union household. “This legislation will empower workers to exercise their right to organize. It will hold employers accountable for violating workers’ rights. It will secure free, fair, and safe union elections. And it will preempt right to work laws across the country.”

“I am proud to stand in solidarity with labor unions in Michigan and across the country as a co-sponsor of the PRO Act – and will continue to do everything in my power to see that it gets passed,” Peters concluded.

The PRO Act, which Peters has previously co-sponsored in the U.S. Senate, protects right to organize and collectively bargain and includes measures that would:

• Hold employers accountable for violating workers’ rights by authorizing meaningful penalties, facilitating initial collective bargaining agreements, and closing loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors.
• Empower workers to exercise their right to organize by strengthening support for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights, protecting workers’ right to support secondary boycotts, ensuring workers can collect “fair share” fees, and authorizing a private right of action for violation of workers’ rights.
• Secure free, fair, and safe union elections by preventing employers from interfering in union elections, prohibiting captive audience meetings, and requiring employers to be transparent with their workers.
  
  

To watch Senator Peters’ speech on the Senate floor, click here.

Below is the text of Peters’ remarks.

A little over a decade ago, Michigan lawmakers convened a session in the dark of night. They put padlocks on the doors of the Capitol, so that they wouldn’t have to listen to the protesters who had gathered outside. They had come to Lansing to pass, quote, “right to work” – a policy that weakened the power of unions all across Michigan. Today, my colleagues in the state legislature passed legislation in the state Senate to repeal that law and it now moves to the House next week.

They are stepping up – because they understand that we are living through a crucial moment. The richest Americans are only getting richer, while many working people are left behind, unable to reap the benefits of the wealth they helped to create.

Labor unions are the best tool we have to buck that trend. They expand and empower the middle class.

They allow workers to negotiate for better wages, safer workplaces, and the right to retire with dignity.

But union membership is at an all-time low. Many employers intimidate workers who attempt to organize  and retaliate against those who are able to come together. It’s one reason that the gap between rich and poor continues to grow.

In order to keep building an economy that works for everyone, we need to take a lesson from my home state of Michigan. We need to breathe new life into American unions. And we need to pass the PRO Act. 

This legislation will empower workers to exercise their right to organize. It will hold employers accountable for violating workers’ rights. It will secure free, fair, and safe union elections, and it will preempt right to work laws across the country. 

Simply put, the PRO Act will make it easier for working people everywhere to join a union.

As a Michigander, the right to organize is a pillar of my state. Modern unions were born in Flint, Michigan when autoworkers banded together in the winter of 1936 for better pay and working conditions. Their 44-day strike started a movement that formed the backbone of the American middle class.

But this is also very personal to me. My dad was an NEA teacher, my father-in-law a UAW Local 5690 retiree. My mother, a nurse’s aide, who worked with the SEIU to organize her workplace. And when management tried to sway her with a raise – she refused. She would not quit, she would not stop her fight until everyone got a better deal and everyone got a raise. And after the employees voted to unionize, they made her a union steward. She taught me the value of standing up and fighting for your rights – no matter what’s in your way.

We have seen what is possible when we choose to stand up for working people. We enacted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which will create good-paying union jobs all across the country and penalize companies that break labor law. And just over two years ago, we passed the Butch Lewis Act and secured pensions for millions of American workers.

These victories have helped a lot of people and we can build on that work by passing the PRO Act. It is a comprehensive, commonsense legislation that we have to get it across the finish line.

The namesake of this bill is former AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka – a legend in the labor movement and a tireless advocate for working people. Just before he died, he addressed a group of Alabama coal miners who were in the throes of a strike.

And he told them: “We’re not going to give in or give up. We will prevail. One day longer. One day stronger.”

His words ring as true today as they did that night in Brookwood, Alabama. We are not giving in or giving up. And together, we will prevail. I am proud to stand in solidarity with labor unions in Michigan and across the country as a co-sponsor of the PRO Act and will continue to do everything in my power to see that it gets passed.

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