番茄社区

Organized labor鈥檚 top legislative priority, the PRO Act, passed a Senate committee last month, a sign that its proponents are undaunted by the bill鈥檚 failure to gain traction in the previous Congress. 

The bill鈥檚 official title is the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023, named for the longtime labor boss. 

The legislation would dramatically alter the relationship between employers and their employees by eviscerating state-level right to work laws that make union membership optional, would undermine the use of secret ballots in union organizing elections, and would allow labor unions access to employees鈥� contact information among other provisions that labor unions have long advocated. 

Section 104 of the bill says that when a union organizing election is planned for a workplace that the employer must 鈥減rovide a voter list to a labor organization that has petitioned to represent鈥� the employees. The list must include 鈥渆mployees鈥� home addresses, work locations, shifts, job classifications, and, if available to the employer, personal landline and mobile telephone numbers, and work and personal email addresses.鈥� 

Arizona 番茄社区 of Commerce & Industry President and CEO Danny Seiden said the section requiring employers to furnish their employees鈥� personal information is particularly pernicious. 

鈥淎s if ending a worker鈥檚 right to a secret ballot weren鈥檛 enough, now unions want job creators to facilitate their organizing campaigns,鈥� Seiden said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not hard to imagine the potential for harassment and browbeating of employees at their homes, by phone, text, or email. It鈥檚 just one more reason why this Congress should reject the PRO Act.鈥� 

The PRO Act undermines steps taken by Arizona lawmakers and voters to protect workers鈥� private contact information and to secure their access to a secret ballot. 

The state Legislature in 2019 passed with bipartisan support legislation to allow a health professional who is licensed by a health profession regulatory board to opt-out of having their home address made public, and it prevented an association of licensed health professionals from selling licensees鈥� contact information. Then Gov. Doug Ducey signed the bill into law. 

In 2010, voters passed Proposition 113 with 60% support, guaranteeing workers access to a secret ballot in union organizing elections. 

鈥淎rizona voters and legislators from both parties have made clear that workers鈥� private information should be kept confidential and that ballots should be secret,鈥� Seiden said. 鈥淭he PRO Act would strip away the safeguards Arizonans believe are important.鈥� 

The legislation was introduced in the previous Congress but failed to advance in the Senate because of holdouts like Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema, I, and Mark Kelly, D. 

Reintroduced in February by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., this year鈥檚 bill has 47 cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. 

Sinema and Kelly once again have refused to co-sponsor. 

鈥淏oth Sen. Sinema and Sen. Kelly deserve tremendous credit for resisting what must be intense pressure from the Democratic caucus to cosponsor this job-killing bill,鈥� Seiden said. 鈥淚f the PRO Act were to make it all the way to the president鈥檚 desk, overnight Arizona and the rest of the country would become dramatically less economically competitive. Arizona is fortunate that its two senators are holding the line.鈥� 

The bill passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee June 21, but without Sinema and Kelly鈥檚 support, the bill is likely to fail in a vote of the full Senate. 

The Teamsters union cheered the committee vote and called on the rest of the Senate to 鈥溾�� and support the bill. 

鈥淭ough talk from Teamsters isn鈥檛 going to intimidate our senators,鈥� Seiden said. 鈥淭his bill deserves to fail and Sinema and Kelly will make sure it does.鈥�