File #: R-207-21    Version: 1 Name:
Type: Resolution Status: Approved
File created: 4/16/2021 In control: City Council
On agenda: 4/27/2021 Final action: 4/27/2021
Title: Supporting the PRO Act - Protecting the Right to Organize (H.R. 842) - to empower workers, increase accountability for violation of workers' rights and ensure free, fair and safe union elections, as is being considered by the United State Congress.
Sponsors: Katie Moline, Matt Cherry, Theresa Gadus, Cerssandra McPherson
Attachments: 1. Audio: Agenda Review April 20, 2021, 2. Audio: City Council April 27, 2021
Label
Council Members Moline, Cherry, Gadus, and McPherson

Title
Supporting the PRO Act - Protecting the Right to Organize (H.R. 842) - to empower workers, increase accountability for violation of workers' rights and ensure free, fair and safe union elections, as is being considered by the United State Congress.

Summary
WHEREAS, the middle class is the backbone of our country and the effects of COVID-19 on middle class America showed the vast inequity present in the modern day with middle class workers gaining only a 1.1 percent rise in income and the wealthiest one percent of Americans income growing by 184 percent during the same period; and

WHEREAS, protecting workers' right to organize a union is critical to rebuilding America's middle class and improving the lives of workers and their families; and

WHEREAS, the PRO act supports workers by: empowering them to exercise their right to organize, holding employers accountable for violating workers' rights and securing free, fair, and safe union elections; and

WHEREAS, some protections that the PRO act provides include: streamlining access to justice for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights; giving workers the power to override so-called "right-to-work" laws that prevent unions from collecting dues from the workers they represent; by enhancing workers' right to support boycotts, strikes, or other acts of solidarity; and authorizing a private right of action for violations of workers' rights; and

WHEREAS, the PRO Act holds employers accountable by: authorizing meaningful penalties for companies and executives that violate workers' rights; closing loopholes that corporations use to erode workers' rights; preventing companies from denying workers' access to justice; and requiring employers to be transparent with their workers; and

WHEREAS, the PRO Act secures free, fair, and safe union elections by: preventing employers from interfering in union e...

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