Coalition Letter to Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Bills Under Consideration at the Committee Markup on June 21, 2023
The 32 undersigned organizations oppose the following bills being considered at the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee markup on June 21, 2023: the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (“PRO”) Act (S. 567), the Healthy Families Act (S. 1664), and the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 728). Our organizations stand ready to work with the Committee to find long-term solutions that will be mutually beneficial to employees and employers alike and suggest the Committee consider several alternative measures that have either been introduced this Congress or in prior Congresses. The PRO Act would upend federal labor policy at the expense of workers and employers’ rights. The bill would deprive many franchisees and self-employed individuals of their chosen livelihoods, deprive many workers of the right to secret ballots in union representation elections, and limit employers’ constitutionally protected free speech rights. The bill would also eliminate all right-to-work laws, make the supply chain more vulnerable to labor strife, allow unions to gerrymander union representation elections, and force employers to provide workers’ personal information to unions without the workers’ authorization. These are only some of the egregious provisions in the bill. More information on the PRO Act, its economic consequences, and its lack of public support is outlined in a March 2023 letter1 that over 100 employer organizations sent to the Committee.