Title
To Express Support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.
Body
WHEREAS, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act provides a generational opportunity for the labor movement and serves as the cornerstone of the AFL-CIO’s Workers First Agenda; and
WHEREAS, inequality has skyrocketed due to the failure of policymakers to pass pro-worker labor laws and properly administer the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which has been dismantled for several decades to make it more difficult for workers to form unions; and
WHEREAS, the PRO Act is the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression, as it stands to give workers a free and fair choice on whether to form a union, ensure workers can reach a first contract quickly after a union is recognized, end employers’ practice of punishing striking workers by hiring permanent replacements, and hold corporations accountable with real penalties for illegally retaliating against workers who organize; and
WHEREAS, the PRO Act will help make America’s economy work for working people, and help raise stagnant wages that have only increased a mere 9% from 1973 to 2013, while productivity has increased 74% over that same time period; and
WHEREAS, wage stagnation and runaway inequality of political, social, and economic power have undermined the public’s faith in our democracy; and
WHEREAS, through the expansion of collective bargaining under the PRO Act, there will be increases in pay and protections for women, people of color, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community in areas where our non-discrimination laws are still falling short; and
WHEREAS, America must build back better with unions by making the PRO Act the law of the land, increasing worker power and rebuilding our economy fairly for all of us; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
This Council expresses support for the PRO Act which stands to greatly increase economic opportunity in America a...
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