(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act:
“Under this bill, the employer is forced to hand over the telephone number, the email and the address of each employee to the union,” said Grothman. “I believe in the importance of protecting people’s privacy. To say that unions have the right to know every member’s home address, and turn it over to who knows how many functionaries, I find very offensive. I would find it very scary if an employee came home one night to find someone waiting there for them to talk about a union election.
It is hard for me to believe that the Democratic party, who purport to be in favor of protecting working Americans, in particular, working women, would champion a bill that amounts to the forced turnover of employees’ private information.
There are two more provisions in this bill that I find offensive. The first pertains to surprise elections. This bill will greatly reduce workers ability to be informed on elections by drastically reducing the amount of time between when an election is announced and when ballots are cast. The second, is the unnecessary and burdensome changes to the joint employer rule. These changes would put miles of red tape on small business franchisees that would devastate the industry.”
Background
More information on the PRO Act can be found here
Key offensive provisions:
- Forces employers to hand over mountains of personal information to unions, such as home addresses, cell phone numbers and personal emails.
- Drastically decreases the minimum time required between announcing union elections and when they will be held.
- Creates burdensome standards on defining joint employment and independent contractor status, which would be detrimental to the small business owners in the franchise industry.
