Key Vote NO on the PRO Act, H.R. 2474

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to vote NO on the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 2474. The PRO Act is one of the most anti-worker and anti-business bills that we have ever seen brought to the House floor. Introduced by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the PRO Act is a giveaway to labor unions that would harm our economy and that especially targets workers who choose not to join unions.

Notably, it would do so by undermining all 28 states — more than half of the country — that have right-to-work laws. Federally coercing all private-sector workers to pay fees to labor unions violates individuals’ First Amendment rights and threatens the increased employment rates seen in right-to-work states. The only thing that this bill is “PRO” is pro-union.

It attempts to apply to the whole country a horrific standard set by California, of all states, regarding worker classification. The PRO Act would also codify California’s disastrous “ABC” test that determines whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The law throttles the gig economy by making it more difficult for companies to contract with individuals. It should be noted that many independent contractors prefer their status to being a full-time employee.

Now, even ultra-liberals in California have come to realize how harmful their new law, Assembly Bill 5, is to workers. In their state, it has hit contractors harder than the unions that pushed the law admitted, forcing many companies to choose between hiring their contractors full-time or laying them off. Unsurprisingly, an avalanche of layoffs ensued. Unions back these types of laws, though, because they make it easier to unionize workers.

Furthermore, the PRO Act undermines privacy for workers by mandating that employers share their employees’ personal information with unions, with few to no restrictions on what unions can then do with the employees’ information. Such a prospect is terrifying. Needless to say, the PRO Act would do nothing but undermine the very workers it claims to help. But, this is just par for the course for the left and their labor union special interests.

FreedomWorks will count the vote on the PRO Act, H.R. 2474, when calculating our Scorecard for 2020 and reserves the right to score any related votes and weight any votes. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.

Sincerely,
Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks