WASHINGTON – Today, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced a bill to protect striking workers from their employers terminating their health care benefits. The Striking and Locked Out Workers Healthcare Protection Act would protect workers’ health care benefits and prevent employers from using their power to cancel or alter health insurance for workers exercising their right to strike.
“Cutting off a worker’s health insurance during a strike is not negotiation, it’s a retaliation, and it’s unacceptable,” said Senator Gallego. “This bill makes sure that workers have the freedom to organize without having their families’ health held over their heads. No one should be punished for standing up for better working conditions.”
“Every Wisconsin worker deserves to be treated with dignity and respect on the job. When employers fail to keep their end of that bargain, workers also have the right to strike for fair pay and safe working conditions. But, too often, big employers don’t like that and use their power to retaliate against workers and go after their health care benefits, forcing workers to decide whether to fight for their dignity in the workplace or health care for their family,” said Senator Baldwin. “Our bill simply ensures employers cannot bully striking employees into accepting an unfair deal by withholding health benefits workers and their families were promised.”
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) establishes workers’ right to strike as a protected activity, and employees cannot be fired for striking. But employers can, and often do, threaten to cut workers’ healthcare as a tactic to end the strike and intimidate workers. The bill would create a separate unfair labor practice category for when employers cut or alter workers’ health insurance while they are on strike or locked out, and violators would be subject to increasing levels of civil penalties.
The legislation is supported by the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), International Association of Iron Workers (IW), American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), Transport Workers Union (TWU), Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, National Education Association (NEA) International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART), Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), and NewsGuild-CWA.
Full text of this legislation is available HERE.
6/5/25