Labor Pains: Because Being in a Union can be Painful

Americans for Prosperity Endorses the ERA

eraThe Employee Rights Act (ERA)—reintroduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) last summer—now has more than 120 co-sponsors in Congress, including 29 senators. It’s easy to understand why: The bill would substantially reform American labor law for the first time since the 1940s, democratizing the workplace and protecting employees in the process. For instance, the ERA would guarantee secret ballot union elections and employee privacy during union organizing campaigns.

But it’s not just Congress rallying behind the ERA. Americans for Prosperity, a grassroots coalition with more than 2.8 million activists across the country, recently penned a letter of support for the ERA, urging Congress to “take this opportunity to extend worker freedom to every American.” The letter also stated that the bill “would protect the rights of every American as it relates to union representation.”

And Akash Chougule, AFP’s policy director, showed his support for the ERA in the pages of The Wall Street Journal. In Chougule’s words, “unions don’t necessarily speak for the American workers” and the ERA would guarantee employees the voice they lack under current labor law.

Less than 10 percent of union members ever voted for the union currently “representing” them. And those who managed to secure a vote weren’t even guaranteed a secret ballot vote.

Something has to change. And the ERA is the change America’s workforce deserves.

Categories: Employee Rights Act