By DAN FAGAN
If the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act, or PRO Act becomes law, it will make it much harder to work as an independent contractor or become self-employed. It would also destroy thousands of small businesses.
Simply put, the Big Labor-backed, and Joe Biden-supported PRO Act is an assault on capitalism and a huge step toward socialism and eventually communism.
Alaska Congressman Don Young was one of only five Republicans to vote for the PRO Act when it passed the House.
No surprise there. Young has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Labor for years.
The legislation now sits in the Senate where Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski remain undecided on the freedom-destroying bill.
For six decades, Big Labor has struggled convincing private sector workers to join unions and pay dues. Private sector union membership in America has been as high as 35 percent. Today, it’s in the single digits and dropping.
The PRO Act would tilt the playing field considerably in favor of dues-collecting labor union bosses at the peril of small business owners and the self-employed.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce described the PRO Act as “a litany of almost every failed idea from the past 30 years of labor policy.”
The PRO Act ends the secret ballot for workers when they’re voting on whether to unionize at their job. The worker will be forced to vote via a check card, meaning the union boss will know which workers voted against their efforts. That could cost the worker if the business becomes unionized.
The PRO Act would force workers to pay dues even if they voted against joining the union. The legislation would also gut protections in the 27 states that passed Right to Work legislation, Alaska not being one of them.
The bill also has a “You can never leave provision.” Once workers vote to unionize at a business, they are not allowed to vote the union out.
Under current labor laws, if employees at a unionized business strike, the company has the right to lock the workers out. The PRO Act takes away that right from business owners.
The PRO Act would also force most independent contractors to become employees. This aspect of the bill would all but kill the gig economy and companies like Uber and Lyft.
The emergence of ride sharing has been a win-win for both drivers and riders. It means drivers never have to worry about making ends meet. For passengers, it provides a much cheaper and less smelly mode of transportation.
But as with anything that’s too good to be true, you can count on union boss puppet politicians like Congressman Don Young to end it. Unions don’t care much for the free market.
In California, the state legislature passed a similar law to the PRO Act. After the bill passed, Uber and Lyft were poised to shut down in the state until an appeals court allowed the companies to continue to temporarily treat their drivers as independent contractors.
California voters then passed a ballot initiative exempting Uber and Lyft drivers from being forced to becoming employees.
The PRO Act would hit Alaska’s construction industry especially hard.
“The PRO Act poses a significant threat to the viability of the commercial construction industry, its long history of offering advancement and opportunity to all workers and its ability to rebuild our economy and revive our nation,” according to a statement by the Associated General Contractors.
The PRO Act would allow union bosses to force business owners to turn over their employees’ personal information like cell phone numbers and email addresses. The legislation puts no limits on how union bosses can use the private information.
The PRO Act is a deeply punitive measure for small businesses. If a small business owner hires a contract worker, that worker will be considered an employee entitled to full benefits.
If this legislation passes, owning a small business will become much more expensive.
The PRO Act is an all-out assault on the free market and capitalism. The fact that Murkowski and Sullivan refuse to lead the fight against such legislation, or even refuse to commit to vote against the bill, speaks volumes about them.
As for Don “Big Labor” Young, it’s more of the same.
Dan Fagan hosts the top rated morning drive radio show on Newsradio 650, KENI.
This is a bad idea. This should be voted out.
I changed my mind after getting more into it.
This is why Dan Sullivan was booed off the stage here at MRAK last weekend. Where are you Lieutenant Dan?!
We are witnessing the end of Capitalism. It turned into Corporatism and so became indefensible. I hope all the (mostly conservative) politicians who supported NAFTA, Free-Trade (Lindsey Graham) and allowing China into the WTO are happy now. You destroyed American capitalism literally and in the minds of the young where you germinated a socialist seed. If I was young today making $10 an hour buying junk made by slaves in China I would probably hate “capitalism” too.
Is this another article – narrative to remind us (possibly convince us and.or plea with us) that Don, Dan & Daddy’s Little Princess are truly worthy of our vote as conservatives? I’m often reminded that ones “actions” are emblematic, a true representation, of ones true “character.”
As a registered Republican in the State of AK for 37-yrs, I reflect back upon the political landscape here in AK and question the true character of all three of these individuals. The resulting and concluding opinion is not favorable. AND, as I contemplate if there’s anything in the future that will change my mind, I find very little evidence that will convince me otherwise.
You know how they’ll vote.
Politicians. I can not find one running on his or her list of accomplishments, yet come election time we send the same old crew back and look at our country today.
Maybe it’s just we all have acquired us a taste for crap sandwiches so we just eat on and on.
Before the final scenes on earth and the death of capitalism are upon us all maybe we can vote them all out immediately it can’t get worse. Trump had no experience and he prospered us all. Dominion gave us Biden look at our country’s sell us out politicians election integrity please. Imagine having COVID Fauci the federal government the new false idol television all at your fingertips.
We all have turned our hearts away from GOD and his son. We all need to beg the creator of all to save us more than ever because it appears we can’t.
Government is an antiquated unnecessary system
It’s not even dvd it’s Betamax
It’s the first time I’ve used this phrase in a sentence…I don’t know if I’m using it right. But I feel like conservatives just get gaslighted in this state.
Suzanne,
Are you writing a column about what a great conservative “Coco Beach land deal” Young is – like you did Sullivan?
The Alaska delegation is sorely lacking in America First, Constitutional, Free Enterprise principles.
Young, like Lisa and Danny need to go – Uber Swamp creatures – all of them…
Remember the days when the liberal grifter “Republicans” still pretended to be conservative, just opposed to Trump? Because Trump “wasn’t conservative enough” for these true conservative professionals. We won’t have small business opportunity or discretionary income, but it’s worth it for no more meanie tweets.
Maybe you’re not old enough to remember that Trump used to be a Democrat and Hillary used to be a Republican. This bill has a lot of good things attached to it. The problem as I see it is you value money too much. It’s only worth what the government says it’s worth. Do you still think we’re going to get out of debt? Do you think we’re even trying? All everybody in the world is doing these days is keeping all the plates spinning and trying to improve their country. I don’t care that slaves are making paper plates for me in China. It doesn’t make me lose sleep one iota. I don’t care that people working for McDonald’s have a starting pay of $12 an hour. It doesn’t mean anything. You’re just an ant in The colony. Grab a piece of dirt and make the mound higher for the next rain.
We are a capitalist, confederate guaranteed republic. If this seems wrong to you scram.
The simple truth is that in every year since Nixon supported the passage of and worked to implement OSHA, Union membership in the private sector has fallen. This isn’t to say that there has not been an explosion of Union Membership in this country, only it has been in the public sector. Nixon Federalized “Safety”, an important plank of Union organizers. His political opponents in Big Labor were befuddled as to why Tricky Dick did such a thing. Nixon was an evil genius at times…
Ok, we do not know how our two senators will vote and we need to be contacting them and asking them emphatically to vote ‘no’ on this disaster. And Young is supportive? Well he has now lost my vote then. I am appalled and as soon as I have posted this I am going to contact pages. Please join me!
Here is a list of the 19 RINOs who voted YES on this POS TAXPAYER RIP OFF bill:
1. Roy Blunt (Mo.)
2. Richard Burr (N.C.)
3. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.)
4. Bill Cassidy (La.)
5. Suan Collins (Maine)
6. Kevin Cramer (N.D.)
7. Mike Crapo (Idaho)
8. Deb Fischer (Neb.)
9. Lindsey Graham (S.C.)*******
10. Chuck Grassley (Iowa)
11. John Hoeven (N.D.)
12. Mitch McConnell (Ky.)
13. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
14. Rob Portman (Ohio)
15. James Risch (Idaho)
16. Mitt Romney (Utah)
17. Dan Sullivan (Alaska)
18. Thom Tillis (N.C.)
19. Roger Wicker (Miss.)
One thing I could always count on from my union/leftist adversaries was that they would NEVER consider what the other side might do in response to their actions because it is generally inconceivable to them that there might be another way to look at something. If the communists, excuse me, Democrats pass this they run straight into the USSC that handed down the Janus decision extending that holding to the private sector.
The public sector unions have been fairly successful in thwarting effective implementation of Janus in the States that have public sector collective bargaining because all but two or three of those states are deeply and irredeemably Democrat; the Democrats aren’t going to kill their cash cow until absolutely forced to give it up. Here in Alaska we haven’t implemented Janus because our Department of Law is either stupid, complicit with the unions, or both.
In Janus the USSC held that collective bargaining is inherently political and the government cannot force an employee to participate in or contribute to political speech by paying compelled union dues. The same logic will apply if the PRO Act passes and the government compels all employees to be union members in all the states. The states that are already union will go along with or even help the unions collect dues. The states that have been right to work for years and fought off years of union attempts to make them union shop states will not take it lightly.
A poster above posits that the US has turned from capitalism to corporatism, and with large businesses that is almost universally true. They’ll suck up to the government on anything that poses a barrier to competition or gives them a business advantage. Even traditionally anti-union WalMart would walk away from that antipathy if the government forced all its competitors to become union. The only real capitalism left is in small business and the unions and Democrats are trying to make small business extinct.
I for one have lost faith in our congressional delegation.
The Lucys of Big Labor will offer support to Murkowski and Sullivan in exchange for their votes and their money, but will predictably pull the football away when it comes time to deliver.
Like Vince Beltrami and his ilk would support them. Unbelievable.
Oh, the unions/communists will always leave a Benjamin or two on the dresser if they don’t have a better date. If they have any communist/Democrat they think can win, they will never support a Republican. Murkowski has been a quisling for them so she thinks they’ll solidly support her, but if they thought they had a prayer in Hell of beating her with a Democrat or one of their fake independents, they’d drop her like a hot rock.
Well, that was a depressing read.
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