Support includes backing bipartisan legislation to protect workers’ right to organize
WASHINGTON – In honor of Labor Day, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) is highlighting his support of the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), comprehensive labor legislation to protect the rights of workers to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. The legislation is named in honor of former AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka.
“American workers deserve good wages, good benefits, and safe working conditions. But too often, big corporations and billionaire CEOs retaliate against workers who fight for them—and they do it without consequences,” said Senator Gallego. “I’m proudly backing the PRO Act to protect workers’ right to organize and to hold bad actors accountable when they break labor laws.”
Large corporations and the wealthy continue to capture the rewards of a growing economy while working families and middle-class Americans are left behind. From 1979 to 2023, annual wages for the bottom 90% of households increased just 44 percent, while average incomes for the wealthiest 1% increased more than 180 percent.
Unions are critical to increasing wages and creating a strong economy that rewards hardworking people. Through the power of collective bargaining, the typical union worker earns 16 percent more than the typical non-union worker.
The American people’s support for unions is surging. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans approve of labor unions — remaining at near record highs. Despite growing support for unions, billionaire and special interest-funded attacks on the rights of workers, unions and labor laws have eroded union density and made it harder for workers to organize. The share of American workers who are union members has fallen from roughly one in three workers in 1956 to a new low of 9.9 percent in 2024. The PRO Act restores fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal law that protects the right of workers to join a union and bargain for higher pay, better benefits and safer workplaces.
The PRO Act would protect the right to organize and collectively bargain by:
- Bolstering remedies and punishing violations of the rights of workers through authorizing meaningful penalties for employers that violate their rights, strengthening support for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights and authorizing a private right of action for violation of the rights of workers.
- Strengthening the rights of workers to join together and negotiate for better working conditions by enhancing their right to support secondary boycotts, ensuring unions can collect “fair share” fees, modernizing the union election process and facilitating initial collective bargaining agreements.
- Restoring fairness to an economy rigged against workers by closing loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors and increasing transparency in labor-management relations.
More than 18 organizations endorsed the PRO Act, including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Autoworkers (UAW), United Steelworkers (USW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), National Nurses United (NNU), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), the American Federation of Musicians, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Transport Workers Union (TWU), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT).
Full text of the bill is available HERE.
A fact sheet of the bill is available HERE.
A section-by-section summary of the bill is available HERE.
The PRO Act builds on Senator Gallego’s record of standing up for organized labor. Earlier this year, he introduced the Striking and Locked Out Workers Healthcare Protection Act to prevent employers from cancelling or altering health insurance for workers exercising their right to strike. Gallego also backed the No Tax Breaks for Union Busting Actto end taxpayer subsidies for companies’ anti-union behavior, which corporations can currently deduct as a business expense. In March, he joined Senate Democrats in urging President Trump to rescind his executive order to end collective bargaining agreements between public employee unions and dozens of federal agencies and bureaus.
9/1/25