In 2019, the U.S. Chamber released a report discussing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a bill in Congress that amounted to nothing more than a litany of organized labor’s policy preferences. Subsequently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill, but it predictably went nowhere in the Senate, which at the time had a Republican majority. In the fall of 2020, however, the political winds shifted, and a new, pro-labor president took office in the person of Democrat Joseph R. Biden. Equally important, the Senate became split 50-50, with the new Vice President able to break any potential deadlocks in her dual role as President of the Senate.
This updated paper highlights the major changes to the established framework of labor and employment relations that organized labor has in mind in the latest legislative iteration of the PRO Act. Now that it grows closer to becoming a reality, those who favor a climate free from lopsided, pro-union policies should pay attention to this legislation. With the full weight of the labor movement behind it, the PRO Act is a harbinger of a new, union-dominated business environment that looms on the horizon.
