The Georgia Chamber of Commerce represents over 47,000 companies employing over 2.5 million Georgians in 500 business sectors and all counties of the Peach State.
The US Chamber of Commerce now represents approximately 300,000 direct members and indirectly represents the interests of more than 3 million businesses and professional organizations of all sizes, in every economic sector and from every region of the country.
We know the business with Georgia.
And we know the public policies that will harm Georgian companies and their workers if we see them. Such is the case with a federal law called the Protecting the Right to Organization Act, or PRO Act. Let’s be clear – we support the right of Georgia workers to form or join a union if they choose to do so. However, the PRO Act would transform Georgia’s workplaces beyond recognition, giving union organizers and federal bureaucrats new powers over employers and their workers. We believe the PRO Act would make it more expensive for Georgia employers to do business and cost thousands of Georgia workers their jobs.
Consider a provision of the PRO Act that would overrule the 75-year-old law on the right to work in Georgia. Should the PRO Act be enacted, under this provision workers of a unionized company would be required to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of their employment, eliminating their freedom of choice. It should be noted that union dues in Georgia average nearly $1,000 a year. In this era of high inflation, which Bloomberg estimates will cost the typical American household $5,200 this year, Georgians can barely afford the expense of forced unionization.
Two additional provisions of the proposed law would affect workers’ rights by making it easier for unions to organize workplaces. The first would undermine secret balloting in union elections in favor of a “card checking system” in which workers’ votes would be made public. The second would require employers to provide confidential personal employee information – such as their home address and telephone number – to union organizers before a union election. It is very easy to see how both of these provisions would expose workers to possible threats, intimidation and disqualification.
The PRO Act would endanger entire business models and industries. One provision would codify what is known as the common employer rule, making franchise owners employees of their brands and facilitating the organization of their businesses. It is estimated that this measure could cost up to 350,000 jobs in the USA. In addition, costs would escalate and diminish the appeal of the franchise model, which has served as a powerful avenue to wealth for many minority entrepreneurs.
The gig economy would also fall victim to the PRO Act. Under a further provision, most gig workers would be reclassified as employees. The American Action Forum estimates that reclassifying 50 percent of Georgia’s approximately 850,000 independent workers could cost Peach state employers an additional $2 billion annually. Their analysis does not take into account the most likely outcomes of these policies, but does take into account massive layoffs and higher costs for consumers.
It should be clear by now that the PRO Bill is a great reward for unions. These are just some of the 51 major changes to US laws governing employment and union elections in the bill.
As the PRO bill passed the US House of Representatives, it languished in the Senate, lacking enough support to land on President Joe Biden’s desk.
That’s when the supporters of PRO Act got creative. First, they tried to cram the many job-killing provisions into the Build Back Better reconciliation law. When that failed, the House of Representatives inserted several PRO-Act ideas into the COMPETES Act, ostensibly about helping American industry remain competitive with China. Now the House and Senate must meet to agree on compromise language for the COMPETES Act. We actively call on the delegation of the Georgian Senate to remove the provisions of the PRO Law from its final version.
Better yet, the entire federal delegation of Georgia should oppose the PRO Law and all its provisions in whatever form.
Chris Clark is President and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Glenn Spencer is Senior Vice President, Employment Policy Division, US Chamber of Commerce.
