No going back: It’s time for a new era in America’s labor movement.
To the Editor:
MOUNT VERNON – In November, America’s voters made history by electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president, respectively, of the United States. In January, voters in Georgia shocked the nation two more times with the elections of Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Now, with a pro-worker majority in the House, Senate and White House, America’s labor movement has a real chance to build the power of working people like never before.
This raises the question: How?
The answer is with the passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression.
If passed, it would dramatically increase penalties for employers that violate workers’ rights, protect strikes and other protest activity, streamline the process for reaching a collective bargaining agreement once a union is formed, and so much more.
This isn’t just any bill, it’s civil rights legislation protecting women, immigrants, people of color and the LGBTQ community — and economic stimulus, putting more money in the pockets of workers, which helps our economy build back better. It’s a generational opportunity for the nearly 60 million workers who want to join a union but haven’t found the path to get there under current law.
The PRO Act was passed by the House in 2020 but stalled when it fell onto former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk. When McConnell rejected the bill, he slapped millions of America’s workers and union members in the face. And it stung.
With the sting of McConnell’s abhorrent rejection fresh in our minds, we canvassed. We made phone calls. We knocked on doors. And we got it done. That’s why in 2021, America’s labor movement will do everything in our power to win.
On March 10, 2021, The PRO Act was again been passed by the House, and now is the time to call your U.S. Senators and encourage them to pass this legislation in the Senate.
There’s no going back: It’s time for accountability and action. It’s time to pass the PRO Act.
Sincerely,
Michael Lang
Mount Vernon
Correction
To the Editor:
Thanks to Scott Allan Pullins Esq. (3/13/21) for reminding me that southern Democrats were behind the early atrocities. He is correct. It wasn’t until a southern Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, passed the Civil Rights Bill in the 1960s that the southern Dems switched to being Republicans, taking the Klan with them.
My grandparents were Iowa Republicans, good people who took in a Cuban family 60 years ago. I suspect there are many current Republicans who share their kindness and their values. You must admit, however, that the push to disenfranchise African American voters in the decades since has come from Republicans. The current scramble right now to prevent people of color from voting is coming from Republican legislatures. The Klan has joined them, as we saw from the white supremacists at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Nobody should rest on any claims to laurels. We as a nation have failed to live up to our promise of liberty and justice for all. Join me in working to right that ongoing wrong.
Jill Grubb
Gambier
.webp){kind=tracking}