Democratic Socialists Of America (DSA) Made More Than 500,000 Calls Flipping Senator Manchin On The PRO Act

Washington, D.C. – Major business leaders said today that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin appears to be the latest victim to fall for a campaign led by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to pressure elected officials to support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. After Senator Manchin announced he was co-sponsoring the PRO Act on Monday, the DSA took to social media to laud the success of their campaign where their out-of-state activists reportedly made “500,000 calls” seeking to “flip” Manchin to support the labor organizing legislation.

According to their grassroots website, the DSA is actively promoting their out-of-state phone campaign and encouraging members to keep pressuring targeted legislators: “In our week of action we made 500,000 dials across Arizona, Maine, West Virginia, and Virginia. We talked with thousands of people about why we need to pass the PRO Act … and got them to action with us to pressure their Senators about the bill. We need to keep that pressure up through the month. Join us to make calls!”

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), representing more than 600 major business organizations, said they were disappointed that Manchin was persuaded by the DSA campaign and seems to have chosen to side with socialists and union bosses over West Virginia’s workers and small businesses.

“Unfortunately, it appears Senator Manchin was persuaded by a deceptive campaign run by a national socialist organization, which is unlikely to sit well with his constituents who reject their far left agenda,” said Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Chair Kristen Swearingen. “It is our hope Manchin will reconsider co-sponsoring this legislation as his legacy of bipartisanship will be irrevocably tainted should he continue to support a bill that invades employees’ privacy and kills West Virginia businesses and jobs.”

Swearingen went on to say that she hopes by exposing the DSA campaign, Members of Congress in other states would not fall victim to their deceptive campaign.

“I doubt voters in the other states where DSA is operating will take too kindly to their Member of Congress caving to pressures from a socialist and extreme organization, ” said Swearingen.

CDW and its business organizations said the PRO Act would take away vital privacy protections for nearly 90 percent of West Virginia’s workforce.

“The PRO Act would strip away vital privacy rights of the 86 percent of West Virginia’s non-union workers by forcing employers to turn over their personal contact information to union organizers. With unfettered access to employees, labor organizers would then be free to harass and bully workers into joining an unwanted union against their will,” stated Swearingen.

CDW also said the 4,800 franchise owners in West Virginia would be upended by the PRO Act by “turning them into middle managers, harming their ability to make a living, and killing the dreams of budding entrepreneurs.”

For more information on the negative impacts of the PRO Act, CLICK HERE.

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About The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace

CDW is a broad-based coalition of hundreds of organizations representing hundreds of thousands of employers and millions of employees in various industries across the country concerned with a long-standing effort by some in the labor movement to make radical changes to the National Labor Relations Act without regard to the severely negative impact they would have on employees, employers, and the economy. CDW was originally formed in 2005 in opposition to the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) – a bill similar to the PRO Act – that would have stripped employees of the right to secret ballots in union representation elections and allowed arbitrators to set contract terms regardless of the consequence to workers or businesses.

 

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