We can’t count on any single part of the Build Back Better deal being finalized in Congress until the votes are taken, but David Dayen has found one important and heartening provision in the draft language: a key piece of the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. If this goes makes it into the final version of the bill and is passed, it would be a big advance for workers in the United States.
The proposed language would dramatically increase fines on any employer who commits an unfair labor practice by threatening workers’ jobs, firing them, or otherwise coercing them away from joining a union. The new fines could be up to $50,000 for a first violation and up to $100,000 for repeat violations in which workers are fired.
The National Labor Relations Act says very clearly that workers have the right to organize and it is illegal for employers to threaten or fire them for doing so (or to bribe them not to). That’s the law. But it’s broken all the time. Unfair labor practice charges are filed in more than 40% of union drives, with one in five union drives leading to an unfair labor practice charge specifically about someone being fired for their protected union activity. One of the reasons this law is broken so often is that the penalties for doing so are pathetically small.
What does “pathetically small” mean? If a company is—usually after a long process—found to have illegally fired a worker, it will be forced to rehire that worker and pay back pay, MINUS anything the worker earned during the time they were fired.
Labor expert Dave Kamper highlights the tiny cost to an employer of being found to have committed an unfair labor practice in contrast to the potential costs of racial or gender or other forms of discrimination. A few years ago, AutoZone was ordered to pay $185 million in a pregnancy discrimination case. Tesla was recently ordered to pay $137 million in a racial discrimination judgement.
Firing someone for trying to organize a union is entirely illegal, but here’s why companies do it all the time:
Workers need a real deterrent. If this provision of the PRO Act gets passed as part of a reconciliation package (and then is enforced), they’ll get it. No, it’s not $100 million or more, but $50,000 or $100,000 for an unfair labor practice just might make managers think twice before breaking the law by firing or threatening a worker over their union activity.
The proposed language would dramatically increase fines on any employer who commits an unfair labor practice by threatening workers’ jobs, firing them, or otherwise coercing them away from joining a union. The new fines could be up to $50,000 for a first violation and up to $100,000 for repeat violations in which workers are fired.
The National Labor Relations Act says very clearly that workers have the right to organize and it is illegal for employers to threaten or fire them for doing so (or to bribe them not to). That’s the law. But it’s broken all the time. Unfair labor practice charges are filed in more than 40% of union drives, with one in five union drives leading to an unfair labor practice charge specifically about someone being fired for their protected union activity. One of the reasons this law is broken so often is that the penalties for doing so are pathetically small.
What does “pathetically small” mean? If a company is—usually after a long process—found to have illegally fired a worker, it will be forced to rehire that worker and pay back pay, MINUS anything the worker earned during the time they were fired.
Labor expert Dave Kamper highlights the tiny cost to an employer of being found to have committed an unfair labor practice in contrast to the potential costs of racial or gender or other forms of discrimination. A few years ago, AutoZone was ordered to pay $185 million in a pregnancy discrimination case. Tesla was recently ordered to pay $137 million in a racial discrimination judgement.
Firing someone for trying to organize a union is entirely illegal, but here’s why companies do it all the time:
Workers need a real deterrent. If this provision of the PRO Act gets passed as part of a reconciliation package (and then is enforced), they’ll get it. No, it’s not $100 million or more, but $50,000 or $100,000 for an unfair labor practice just might make managers think twice before breaking the law by firing or threatening a worker over their union activity.