{"id":90470,"date":"2021-03-23T17:17:38","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T17:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=177650"},"modified":"2021-03-23T17:17:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T17:17:38","slug":"the-pro-act-would-transform-the-playing-field-for-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/23\/the-pro-act-would-transform-the-playing-field-for-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"The PRO Act Would Transform the Playing Field for Labor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Amazon fulfillment workers in Bessemer<\/a>, Alabama have one more week to vote for the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union to represent them. The stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. It seems inevitable that a success for RWDSU would spur organization of Amazon facilities and other workplaces across the country; if they can do it in Alabama, surely they can do it in blue states like New York and California. A failure, on the other hand, would seem to signal the futility of challenging a behemoth like Amazon. <\/p>\n

President Biden joined the chorus<\/a> of encouraging voices several weeks ago, and on Wednesday, Bernie Sanders brought one of the Bessemer workers to testify before Congress<\/a>. The media has drawn attention to the tricky tactics Amazon is using to scare workers into voting no. Many outside the labor movement have looked on, wondering, how is this legal? Why did Amazon get to hold “captive audience” meetings<\/a> in which they falsely claimed employees would lose their health insurance if the union succeeds? Why did they get to barrage employees with \u201cvote no\u201d text messages<\/a> and emails<\/a>, misleading them about the voting period and urging them to cast their ballots in the company mailbox<\/a>? For that matter, why did Amazon get to determine the size of the bargaining unit–shouldn\u2019t that be up to workers? <\/p>\n

Amazon can do these things because labor law overwhelmingly favors bosses. Companies like Amazon have \u201cfree speech\u201d rights<\/a> that protect all manner of trickery and coercion. Even when union busting campaigns do break the law, it\u2019s extremely difficult for workers to pursue redress. <\/p>\n

Employers in many states can misclassify workers as supervisors or independent contractors, thereby denying them the right to organize. Big companies hire elite lawyers<\/a> and even pressure our politicians<\/a> to fight for them, but if Lyft drivers band together for better wages they might be violating antitrust law<\/a>. We often hear about this problem in the gig economy, but reliance on contract labor is increasingly the model in many other sectors as well. Following the passage of Prop 22 in California, powerful corporations and their allies are looking to turn all work into gig work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the right to strike severely limited, organized labor is largely unable to win gains that might popularize a belief in the power of collective action.<\/p>\n

Even when workers are allowed to form unions, employers can simply refuse to bargain in good faith for a first contract, dragging out the process<\/a> until the union\u2019s momentum dies down. With the right to strike severely limited<\/a>, organized labor is largely unable to win gains that might popularize a belief in the power of collective action. Unions are sometimes portrayed as being selfishly focused on narrow sets of issues that affect only their members. The reality is, labor law forces them to constantly struggle for their own survival rather than fighting expansively for the common good<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, the House just passed<\/a> a bill that could transform the playing field for unions\u2014and for the many Americans who approve of unions<\/a> and wish they could join one<\/a>. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act<\/a> restores the power of the National Labor Relations Act, which explicitly sought to encourage unions, recognizing that collective action by working people is the most effective way to check the parasitic<\/a> greed and dehumanizing violence of powerful corporations. Here are some things the PRO Act would do: <\/p>\n