Big Vote Coming on the Right to Organize
By: Robert Kraig, Executive Director
At the national level we have more opportunity than we have seen in decades to begin to achieve a just and equitable America. I am asking you to take some quick action on one of the most important advances we can win, the right to organize a union.
As we know in Wisconsin, conservative politicians like Scott Walker use “divide and conquer” tactics to gain power and do the bidding of the wealthy few. This includes attacking the right to organize unions and to collectively bargain, and pitting people against each other based on the color of their skin or where they live. The result is skyrocketing inequality, urban and rural areas with declining opportunity, and horrendous disparities in income and wealth.
We have one of the best opportunities since the New Deal to restore the right to organize. The Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday. With the strong support of President Joe Biden, our most pro-labor president in 50 years, we have a real chance to win this time.
Passing the PRO Act is one of the most important things we can do to advance a bold progressive agenda on everything we care about, from health care to racial justice to climate change.
First, the ability of working people to join unions and collectively bargain for fair pay and working conditions is a fundamental human right. The freedom to join a union helps all working people support their communities and the ones they love because when unions are strong, they set wage standards and make wages more equal to close racial and gender gaps.
Second, restoring the right to organize builds the power of working people to challenge corporate domination, which shifts the balance of power towards progressives. The right and corporate America have done everything they can to demolish unions because there is no precedent for a progressive governing majority that is not backed up by a robust labor movement.
Restoring the right to join a union on a New Deal scale will diversify and energize both American politics and organized labor. The sectors ripe for organizing – retail, fast food, agriculture and food processing, the gig economy, low wage caregivers and paraprofessionals, and the emerging green economy – have the potential to inject into our movement tens of millions organized low wage workers, disproportionately women and people of color who are denied living wages. This will contribute more to economic and political equality than any single governmental action within our reach.
If you agree with me that it is time to restore the right to organize, please take a minute to send an email to your Congressional representative urging them to vote yes on the PRO Act on Wednesday.
If you want more information about the PRO Act, there are excellent resources in the National AFL-CIOs tool kit. Here is the link.
EMAIL Text (for the sender to edit)
Dear Representative [their MOC]
As a member of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, I urge you to support the PRO Act.
The ability of working people to join unions and collectively bargain for fair pay and working conditions is a fundamental human right. The freedom to join a union helps all working people support their communities and the ones they love because when unions are strong, they set wage standards and make wages more equal to close racial and gender wage gaps.
We have one of the best opportunities since the New Deal to restore the right to organize. The Protect the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act) will be voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday. With the strong support of President Joe Biden, our most pro-labor president in 50 years, we have a real chance to win this time.
I hope I can count on you to vote for the PRO Act when it comes before the House of Representatives, and to lend your voice to restoring truly shared prosperity in America.
Signed,
