"Capital still pats labor on th' back, but on'y with an axe. Labor ray-fuses to be threated as a frind. It wants to be threated as an inimy. It thinks it gets more that way. They are still a happy fam'ly, but it's more like an English fam'ly. They don't speak."
--Mr. Dooley
They don't speak, all right. The first we've heard of this year's PRO Act was when French Hill shotgun-blasted an email saying that he'd voted against it. This hasn't exactly been covering up the front pages. But when even close news-watchers have missed it, you know those behind it don't want it noised about.
The PRO Act--more formally known as the Protect the Right to Organize Act--is supposed to be labor's No. 1 priority in the early Biden years. Elections have consequences, and the consequence of the last one is that the White House is very pro-union.
During the campaign, Candidate Joe Biden said he would be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen." His party is working to make that come true.
To make things easier on unions, or perhaps just harder for businesses, the House of Representatives has passed a measure that would give workers more power to form unions, and other abilities. The Washington Post calls it "one of the most significant bills to strengthen workers' abilities to organize in the past 80 years."
How significant it will be, however, depends on the U.S. Senate, which still has the filibuster (for now).
Here are a few provisions of the legislation:
• Most states (27 in all, including Arkansas) have right-to-work laws that allow workers to opt out of their company's union and not pay union dues. But such workers still get the benefits of the union contracts.
The PRO Act "would allow unions to override such laws and collect dues from those who opt out," according to NPR. And the "law would prevent an employer from using its employees' immigration status against them when determining the terms of their employment."
• Meetings by companies to lobby against a union effort (many times attendance is mandatory) would become illegal.
• The bill could allow gig workers at Uber and Lyft to form unions, too, by classifying them as employees rather than contractors.
• There are line items that allow for penalties and fines, of course.
The PRO Act? You have to love the titles of legislation coming out of Congress. It reminds us of the Employee Free Choice Act by Ted Kennedy a dozen years ago, which limited free choice by employees. Or the high-sounding names for low congressional proposals in "Atlas Shrugged."
"Once again," Rep. Hill said in his email, "House Democrats are using a fancy title to blur their real intentions, which are to favor unions and union bosses at the expense of Arkansas workers and families. The so-called PRO Act would overturn the laws of Arkansas and 26 other right-to-work states . . . .
"The bill also violates worker privacy, removes secret ballot protections, and potentially creates costly fines for small businesses if they misinterpret the legal requirements included in the PRO Act."
It would be more honest if its proponents would just call the legislation the PRO-Union Act. Because the bill would stop the falling participation in labor unions across the country almost immediately. No matter what employees want. If this thing passes, every shop would be a closed shop.
The Senate can keep things open. It still has the filibuster.
For now.