The House voted on Wednesday evening 225-206 for a sweeping labor rights law that should make it easier for workers to join a union and give them more collective bargaining rights in workplace disputes.
Driving the news Five Republicans joined Democrats in favor of the law protecting the right to organize.
Yes but: The bill likely hangs in the Senate, where it takes 60 votes to pass, but is opposed by many Republican senators.
- Another version of the bill was also approved by the Democratic-controlled House last year. It was not taken over by the Senate.
Details: The legislation would also reduce so-called “right to work” laws in more than two dozen states that allow workers to refrain from participating in and paying for union dues.
- The law would prohibit employers from using their employees’ immigration status against them when negotiating their jobs.
What they say: President Biden approved the bill on Tuesday, saying in a statement that it would “dramatically increase the power of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages, benefits and benefits.”
- “As America seeks to recover from the devastating challenges of a deadly pandemic, an economic crisis and bearing in mind races exposing deep inequalities, we must call for a new wave of workers’ power to create an economy that works for all. works.”
- The other side: The National Retail Federation has called it “the worst law in Congress.”
- Meanwhile, the US Chamber of Commerce has said the bill would “undermine workers’ rights, entangle employers in unrelated labor disputes, disrupt the economy, and force individual Americans to pay union rights regardless of their wishes.”
The big picture: The PRO law would restrict companies such as Uber and Lyft from classifying employees as independent contractors and improve workers’ right to strike protections, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
- Biden said in early March that he supported a union vote by Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama that, if passed, would be the first Amazon warehouse to unite in a union.