The House voted Wednesday evening 225-206 to pass a comprehensive labor rights bill with the goal of facilitating unionization of workers and providing them with an increase in collective bargaining rights in labor disputes.
Driving the news Five Republicans joined Democrats in support of the Right to Organize Act.
Yes, but: The bill is likely to stall in the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to pass, but many Republican senators oppose it.
- The Democratic-controlled House also passed a different version of the bill last year. It was not assumed by the Senate.
Details: The legislation would also reduce so-called “right to work” laws in more than two dozen states that allow employees to stop participating and pay union dues.
- The law would prohibit employers from using their employees ’immigration status against them when negotiating their employment.
What they say: President Biden passed the bill on Tuesday, saying in a statement that it “would dramatically improve the power of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and working conditions.”
- “As America works to recover from the devastating challenges of the deadly pandemic, an economic crisis and a race-based approach that reveals profound disparities, we must convene a new wave of workers’ power to create a functioning economy for all.” .
- The other side: The National Federation of Retail has described it as “the worst bill in Congress.”
- Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has said the bill “will undermine workers’ rights, capture employers in unrelated labor disputes, disrupt the economy and force Americans to pay union dues regardless of their wishes.” “.
The big picture: The PRO Act would restrict companies like Uber and Lyft from classifying workers as independent contractors and improve the protection of workers ’right to strike, according to the Institute for Economic Policy.
- Biden said in early March that he supported a union vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama that, if approved, would be the first Amazon warehouse to unionize.