Washington Policy Center Vice President for Research Paul Guppy:

"The Supreme Court’s Janus decision affirmed workers can’t be compelled by government to join or pay private organizations including unions.  This act is a desperate move to return improper power to organized labor at the expense of workers, entrepreneurs and First Amendment rights."
 

Extended Statement from Mr. Guppy: 

Union executives profit from union dues but they are having trouble getting workers to join voluntarily, so they want to get Congress to pass a law to promote their business model.  The so-called Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would funnel money to unions by giving them legal powers no other group has – special certification, re-classifying employees, making workers attend union meetings and granting unions monopoly power in the workplace.
 
The bill would violate worker rights in our state by removing protections for Washington state employees who want to hold a job without paying a union.
 
Union executives claim the bill is needed to protect a right to organize that is already protected in every state under the First Amendment and a long, long string of court decisions.  Under Janus v. AFSCME, the Supreme Court recognized that no government worker could be forced to join or pay a union as a condition of employment.
 
Union membership has been declining for decades.  Today barely 7% of workers in the private sector are in a union, and many of them wouldn’t be if they didn’t have to pay monthly dues to keep their jobs. This Act is meant to provide a financial windfall to organized labor without them doing the work required to get people to join voluntarily.
 
With unemployment at record lows and black, Hispanic and Asian employment at historic highs, many workers see little need to join a union.  Still, everyone is free to join voluntarily.  That’s not enough for union executives.  They want more money and power even if it takes federal compulsion through the misnamed PRO Act to get it.