Business leaders warn that the president’s push for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act will exacerbate domestic and global challenges.  

Washington, D.C. – The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), composed of hundreds of organizations representing millions of businesses that employ tens of millions of workers nationwide in nearly every industry, released the following statement today in response to President Biden’s State of the Union address.

The following statement is attributable to CDW Chair Kristen Swearingen:

“The President’s continued push for Congress to pass the stalled, misguided and divisive Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act undermines his calls for unity and threatens our economy. The so-called “PRO” Act would re-write our nation’s labor laws with the sole purpose of boosting the number of dues paying union members at the expense of workers’ rights, Main Street consumers, entrepreneurs, and small and local businesses. This legislation will also exacerbate the economic challenges our country faces with the supply chain crisis and inflation – problems that the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine will continue to complicate in the coming months.

“Now is the time for our government to pursue policies that promote economic stability in the face of these disruptions to the global economy and supply chain. It is not a time to impose radical changes that promise to upend our economy. We currently have a highly competitive job market where employers are offering good wages, signing bonuses, better benefits and more flexible schedules. Rather than dismantling the most pro-worker job market in decades, the government should focus on combatting inflation and alleviating the supply chain crisis, which threaten opportunities for all Americans.

“The push to pass the PRO Act will most certainly backfire on Democrats come November as American workers and their families have time and again rejected the repeated attempts to force them into unions and take away their rights and freedoms. The president should recognize this and redirect his efforts toward truly uniting and empowering Americans through policies that stabilize our economy and support a competitive job market,”

 

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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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