American workers have the freedom to form or join a union if they choose. Do they have the right to reject union membership? Not if Sen. Jacky Rosen and congressional Democrats get their way.
On Monday, Sen. Rosen issued a news release celebrating the reintroduction of the PRO Act in Congress. The proposal, which has been floating around Washington for a few years, is a wish list of Big Labor’s hidebound agenda.
The number of private-sector union workers has plummeted in recent decades as many union-dominated industries — outside of the government — have declined. In 1983, 20 percent of employees were union members. By 2023 that number had dropped to 10 percent. Rather than convince more U.S. workers that unionism is in their best interests, labor bosses created the PRO Act to grease the wheels for increased membership and more dues money.
Over the past decade, union leaders have spent more than $2 billion on left-wing political activism, benefiting Democratic candidates and causes almost exclusively. The PRO Act is an effort to cash in on that investment. Sen. Rosen is at their beck and call.
Among other things, the legislation would override right-to-work laws in 27 states, including Nevada, forcing workers who prefer not to sign up for a union to make financial contributions as a condition of employment. This is anathema to freedom of association and likely unconstitutional. AFL-CIO officials claim that this simply allows unions and employers to negotiate “fair-share agreements” that would ensure non-members pay for the costs of representation. But the solution to this perceived “problem” isn’t to rebrand “union dues” as “fair-share fees.” It’s to rescind the bargaining monopoly granted labor groups in the first place.
In addition, the PRO Act would essentially end secret ballot elections for union representation, replacing it with a “card-check” system susceptible to intimidation and manipulation. But that’s the point. Unions often lose elections when workers are free to express their conscience in the privacy of the voting booth. Card-check makes it more convenient for labor organizers to lean on employees and to identify those who won’t go along.
This shameless sop to unions would also threaten the jobs of millions of contractors and free-lancers, many of whom prefer the independence of such employment.
Sen. Rosen maintains that the PRO Act protects the rights of workers, but it does the opposite by curtailing their freedoms when it comes to union membership and rigging organization campaigns to favor labor. Workers must be free to make their own decisions when it comes to union membership. The PRO Act is an affront to that concept and should die quickly in a GOP Congress.