Home Invoice To Undo State-Degree ‘Proper To Work’ Legal guidelines Is a Preview of Democrats’ Put up-2020 Priorities – Motive.com

One way to understand the Democratic Party’s agenda for the next four years is to pay attention to what happens on the way to the presidential campaign.

Another way – perhaps a better way – is to keep an eye on what the House of Representatives is doing. And that’s especially true this week when Democrats are expected to send a package of union-backed politics through the House, even though the chances of the Senate considering the bill are about zero.

The Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) would add a new language to the National Labor Relations Act to enforce union dues payments even from non-members who work in unionized professions. This means that the passage of the PRO Act in many states would effectively remove so-called “right to work” laws on the books. *

The PRO Act would also implement a veritable set of guidelines that unions have been pushing Congress to pass for years. The bill would force employers to share workers’ private information – including cell phone numbers, email addresses and working hours – with union organizers. This would expedite the National Labor Relation Board’s official schedule for unions to organize elections in union-free workplaces. And it would codify so-called “card check” elections and remove the protection of secret voting when a job votes for union formation.

All three directives are intended to be decisive for the trade unions and employers.

Unions seek help from Congress as membership continues to decline. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 10.3 percent of American workers are unionized – a 0.2 percentage point decrease from that time last year. While 33 percent of public sector workers are unionized, only 6.2 percent of private sector workers are union members.

“This failure to strengthen union membership despite the favorable rules enacted by federal agencies has strengthened the resolve of organized labor that the only solution is to push for laws like the PRO Act,” says Trey Kovacs. a Policy Analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market think tank that speaks out against the PRO Act. “Implementing such a policy would deprive workers of the right to choose how to spend their income, restrict flexible working arrangements and compromise workers’ privacy.”

Other opponents of the bill, like the National Retail Federation, which represents shopkeepers, warn that the passage of the PRO Act will damage the gig economy. A provision in the bill would impose a multi-level test to determine whether an employee is an independent contractor or an employee. A similar provision in California law, passed before the even more controversial state law that effectively bans most independent contractors, has significantly reduced the number of workers classified as independent contractors.

Forcing more workers than workers means higher costs for employers, less flexibility for workers and, of course, more potential union members.

With PRO law almost certainly dead by the time it arrives in the Senate, the expected House vote this week is more about politics than setting guidelines.

Internally, the fact that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Is putting the bill to a vote is a huge win for the progressive wing of House Democrats. It is also significant, however, that several Democrats in Swing districts signed a letter last week asking Pelosi to take the bill.

That said, the PRO law should be a litmus test in this year’s elections. If you plan to vote now, even if the bill doesn’t go any further, the Democrats can campaign for their support – and attack the Swing District Republicans who oppose it.

And at a higher level, this all describes the direction Democrats will seek to take the country when they gain control of the Senate and / or the White House in November. In contrast to the “pie-in-the-sky” promises made by the presidential candidates in the first nomination contest on the long road to the White House tonight, the PRO Act is a concrete list of policy-driven measures will be powerful set of special interests.

That makes it far more likely that a Democratic Congress could pass that package, or something very much like it, in the next few years, while lawmakers continue to argue over bigger issues like Medicare for All and Free College.

* CORRECTION: The original version of this article stated that the PRO Act would obliterate the 2018 Supreme Court decision in Janus v American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. This case dealt only with public sector unions, while the PRO law only applies to private sector unions and therefore has no influence on this decision. *