AFGE Applauds Reintroduction of the PRO Act and Urges Passage

The PRO Act is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fight inequality and level the playing field for working people nationwide.

WASHINGTON – The American Federation of Government Employees, the nation’s largest union representing 750,000 federal and D.C. government workers, applauds the reintroduction of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Once enacted, the PRO Act will empower workers who want to form a union, prohibiting many of the union-busting tactics corporations use to prevent their employees from exercising their rights under the law.

AFGE National President Dr. Everett Kelley issued the following statement:

“For decades, American workers have been fired, misclassified, strong-armed at captive audience meetings, and otherwise coerced by major corporations when they try to exercise their right to join or form a union.

“If workers succeed in organizing a union, corporations use legal stall tactics to drag out the process of negotiating a contract for years – preventing American workers from exercising their right under the law to join a union and collectively bargain for a better life.

“The result has been declining union membership that has led to an unsustainable increase in inequality.

“With the reintroduction of the PRO Act, members of Congress face a choice. Legislators can stand with American workers whose legal rights are being trampled by private employers to the detriment of the nation. Or they can stand with the ultra-wealthy elites whose status depends on the continued oppression and exploitation of working-class Americans.

“President Biden has already committed to signing the PRO Act immediately after its passage. Now is the time for our elected officials to put America’s working people first and pass the PRO Act.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 750,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

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