Another Study Shows Negative Impact PRO Act Would Have On U.S. Economy

While the fiscal year 2022 budget resolution approved by the U.S. House and Senate in August does not call for enactment of the Protection the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, House and Senate leaders still could schedule a vote on this massive labor and employment bill this fall.

As a reminder, this bill would:

• Effectively overturn right-to-work laws in 27 states;
• Allow the firing of workers who opt out of paying unwanted union dues;
• Strip independent contractors of flexible work arrangements and kill earning opportunities; and
• Abolish secret ballots and threaten worker privacy in favor of “card check” voting, where union organizers demand that individual workers publicly sign a card in favor of the union.

According to an analysis by the American Action Forum (AAF), three major PRO Act provisions — repealing right-to-work legislation (RTW), reclassifying independent workers as employees, and broadening the joint-employer standard — would impose huge costs on the U.S. economy.

Specifically, AAF found:

• Between 2000 and 2015, RTW states saw a 13.3 percent increase in the number of businesses in their states, while non-RTW states only saw 4.1 percent growth in businesses. These gains would be in jeopardy if the PRO Act is enacted.
• The PRO Act’s independent worker reclassification provision alone could cost as much as $57 billion nationwide.
• The joint-employer changes would cost franchises up to $33.3 billion a year, lead to over 350,000 job losses, and increase lawsuits by 93 percent.
• The states that would be most impacted by the changes are Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

As a reminder, in July MSCI joined more than 280 organizations to send a letter to members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions asking that they oppose the PRO Act. The letter is available here.

MSCI continues to urge its members to let their representatives in Washington know that the industrial metals sector opposes this legislation. There are several ways to weigh in, including:

• Using this link from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to send an email to senators;
• Writing a letter to senators using this one from NAM as a template;
• Using the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) a grassroots toolkit, which includes a fact sheet explaining the bill, a video  outlining its provisions, and a sample letter for individuals to send to members of Congress; and
• Accessing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s one-click advocacy tool to weigh in on social media and use this portal to send a message to U.S. senators.