Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06) on Thursday voted against the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 2474.
The bill passed the House 224-194 and now moves to the Senate. None of Alabama’s House delegation voted in favor of the legislation.
U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers (AL-03), Robert Aderholt (AL-04) and Mo Brooks (AL-05) joined Palmer in voting “no.” Reps. Bradley Byrne (AL-01), Martha Roby (AL-02) and Terri Sewell (AL-07) were recorded as not having voted.
In a release from his office following the vote, Palmer expressed that he views the act as harmful legislation that would make sweeping reforms to labor relations laws, weakening workers’ positions and bowing to the political demands of labor union leaders.
“The PRO Act is certainly not pro-worker or pro-American,” Palmer said in a statement.
“It will directly harm the economy, workers’ rights, and employers,” he continued. “The list of problems with it is almost too long to name. It overturns many state right-to-work laws by making union membership mandatory, regardless of whether an individual wants to be represented by a union. That’s an egregious overreach by the federal government into the workplace, not to mention a trampling of individual rights. It also severely limits employers’ ability to hire independent contractors and requires employers to turn over workers’ personal information to unions, without the consent of the workers.”
“Each citizen enjoys the freedom of association – this bill would trample on that right by basically making union membership compulsory. This is unacceptable. In addition, a recent report from the American Action Forum found that if the PRO Act were enacted, employers could face more than $47 billion in new annual costs. I voted ‘no’ on this bill for the simple reason that I believe in economic growth and freedom, and the PRO Act would only undo the economic progress we’ve seen over the last three years. America’s economy has never been in a better place, and I’m committed to pursuing policies that continue to make it even better,” Palmer concluded.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
