IBB calls Boilermakers to action for support of PRO Act

Online toolkit makes it easy to take action

Boilermakers are urged to spread the word and call upon their representative members of Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. This critical pro-worker legislation was reintroduced the first week in February in the U.S. House of Representatives and is set to be reintroduced in the Senate in the near future.  It is arguably the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression. If it passes, the PRO Act will:

• Empower American workers to exercise the freedom to organize and bargain.
• Ensure workers can reach a first contract quickly after a union is organized.
• End employers’ practice of punishing striking workers by hiring permanent replacements.
• Hold corporations accountable by strengthening the National Labor Relations Board and allowing it to penalize employers who retaliate against working people who are in support of the union or collective bargaining.
• Repeal so-called “right to work” laws—divisive and racist laws created during the Jim Crow era that lead to lower wages, few benefits and more dangerous workplaces.
• Create pathways for workers to form unions, without fear, in newer industries such as “big tech.”

The House passed the PRO Act in 2020, but an anti-worker majority blocked it in the Senate. As it is reintroduced, it must now pass both chambers of Congress, and President Biden will need to sign it.  It is the cornerstone of the AFL-CIO’s Workers First Agenda to increase the power of working Americans, rebuild our economy fairly and grow the United States labor movement.

The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers has created a PRO Act toolkit based on the AFL-CIO’s toolkit that includes information and talk points about the legislation, downloadable sample emails, phone scripts, letters to the editor and social media graphics, links to the AFL-CIO’s Action Network auto-email and auto-phone system, and a link to find elected representatives’ contact information.