House Passes Sweeping Pro-Labor Bill with Torres Amendment

Rep. Torres Votes to Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act 

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Rep. Torres voted to pass H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.  The historic PRO Act will help rebuild the middle class by protecting workers’ basic right to join a union, holding employers accountable for violating workers’ rights and securing free, fair and safe union elections. 

“The PRO Act would breath new life into the National Labor Relations Act,” said Rep. Torres. “It would empower the NLRB to impose civil penalties on and would empower workers to seek punitive damages against retaliatory employers. Most important: the PRO Act would preempt the Orwellian right-to-work laws so that union organizing is given the freedom to flourish everywhere in the United States.”

An amendment proposed by Rep. Torres requires that, when the Department of Labor processes employers’ filings of persuader activity, the Department must make those filings accessible in an electronic, readable format.

“Employees have a right to know how their employer gets involved in how workers exercise their rights, and they have a right to have that information presented as clearly as possible,” said Torres.  

The Protecting the Right to Organize Act ensures that workers can decide for themselves whether to exercise their right to form a union.  This legislation would be the most significant upgrade for workers’ collective bargaining rights in more than 80 years.  The PRO Act:

1.      Provides new tools to protect workers from anti-union intimidation and retaliation;

2.      Establishes stronger safeguards to ensure workers can hold free and fair union elections; and

3.      Introduces meaningful penalties for companies ⎯ and executives ⎯ that violate workers’ collective bargaining rights.

“A law is only as strong as the power to enforce it. For far too long, the NLRB has been too powerless to enforce the National Labor Relations Act. For too long, workers have been left to largely fend for themselves in the face of retaliation and intimidation and binding arbitration,” continued Rep. Torres. “I am proud to introduce an amendment that requires DOL to make these disclosures available through an app. App-based notification would empower workers to be vigilant in defending the right to organize.”