Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)
When workers try to organize, one of the most effective ways their bosses shut down the effort is simple: fire a few leading union supporters. It's illegal, sure, but it takes a long time for the National Labor Relations Board to hear the case and impose penalties, and it scares other workers away from vocally supporting the union in the meantime. Oh, and the penalties for illegally firing a worker for their union support are so small that "slap on the wrist" almost seems like an exaggeration. Now, Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) have introduced
a bill that would change that:
The Workplace Action for a Growing Economy (WAGE) Act, which Democrats introduced Wednesday, adds hefty monetary penalties for violations of workers’ rights to collectively organize, whether to join a union or simply to improve conditions in the workplace. It also provides for injunctions to force employers to quickly re-hire workers if they were fired unjustly, undocumented or not. And it allows workers to sue in federal court for damages and attorneys fees, which they’re able to do under other labor and civil rights statutes, but not the NLRA. [...]
“There’s a sense that this is about workers, not about unions,” says Harvard Law professor Benjamin Sachs of the new proposal. "EFCA, that’s a union bill. If you think about the Fight for $15 [an hour], this would apply to those workers.” That’s important, he says, because it could draw a larger base of support.
(Mind you,
unions are about workers, but to the extent we're talking about perception, point taken.)
Obviously, this bill joins a long list of other ideas to improve workers' rights—a minimum wage increase, the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Schedules that Work Act, paid leave, the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act—that Democrats have pushed knowing they had no chance of getting through a Republican Congress. But it's important that, when Democrats again control Congress, they have an agenda in place that will help working families. And the contrast with the anti-worker Republicans couldn't be more clear.
