June 6, 2019
Attention: WMA Members
WMA Members in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District (Des Moines and Southwest) are encouraged to contact their Member of Congress (Cindy Axne) on a time-sensitive labor bill. National labor unions are pressuring Congresswoman Axne (D-IA) to co-sponsor H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and the Congresswoman is looking for feedback from businesses in the district.
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is a blatant attempt by labor unions to increase their membership at any cost, and would make radical changes to well-established law, diminish employees’ rights to privacy and association, and negatively impact businesses. Some of the radical provisions in this bill would:
– strip away workers’ free choice in union elections as well as their privacy rights;
– codify into law the NLRB’s controversial Browning-Ferris Industries joint-employer standard that has threatened our country’s small and local businesses;
– curb opportunities for people to work independently through gig economy platforms or more traditional independent contractor roles;
– eliminate Right-to-Work protections for workers across the country, including in the twenty-seven states that have passed Right-to-Work laws;
– interfere with attorney-client confidentiality and make it harder for businesses, particularly small businesses, to secure legal advice on complex labor law matters;
– prohibit arbitration agreements in employment contracts;
– infringe on the due process rights of employers; and
– strip away “secondary boycott” protections that prevent unions from using their antitrust exemptions and immunity from certain state laws to target businesses for anticompetitive purposes other than organizing.
A more detailed one-page fact sheet on the bill is available. Once again, we urge WMA member companies in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District to contact Congresswoman Axne’s office at (202) 225-5476 to voice their opposition to this legislation.
