Coalition Of Business Leaders Say Even One Of The Most Liberal Governors In America Doesn’t Support Key Provision In PRO Act  

Washington, D.C. – The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), composed of more than 600 major business organizations, representing millions of businesses employing tens of millions of workers nationwide, released the following statement in response to Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) vetoing Assembly Bill (AB) 616, which would have allowed agricultural employees to elect a labor representative through a ballot card election. Business leaders said that the card check provisions in AB 616 are similar to the provision in the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would potentially eliminate secret ballot union elections in favor of card check elections.

The following statement is attributable to CDW Chair Kristen Swearingen:

“The fact that Governor Gavin Newson, the most liberal governor of the most liberal state in America, opposes card check union elections should show just how dangerous and misguided the PRO Act is.

“By eliminating secret ballot union elections in favor of card check, the PRO Act takes away workers’ right to privacy by forcing them to cast their ballots in union elections in the presence of other workers and union organizers, opening them up to harassment and intimidation.

“While businesses and workers across the country are slowly getting back on their feet after the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, rewriting our nation’s labor laws in a way that even the governor of California thought was too extreme would cause irreparable harm to our country’s economic efforts and threatens to derail its recovery.

“We applaud Governor Newsom for standing up for California workers by rejecting anti-worker card check union elections and urge Congress to do the same by opposing the PRO Act.”

Click here for more information on the negative impacts of the PRO Act.

 

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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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