Warnock-backed Pro Act isn’t good for Georgia

Gainesville and Hall County are on the move. According to the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, Gainesville is among the 50 fastest growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. and “since 2015, 118 new and expanded businesses have announced 5,750 jobs and $1.5 billion in capital investment.” Small employers are learning what we who are from here have known all along – Gainesville is a great place to live, work, raise a family, and start a business. We’d like to keep it that way.

Senator Warnock is among the Senate sponsors of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which was written with the intent of making businesses and workers easier prey for Big Labor union organizers.

The debate over states’ rights started with the writing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. During the Constitutional Convention, the founding fathers demanded the Constitution contain a set of amendments specifically listing and ensuring certain rights of the people and the states. In establishing American government’s power-sharing system of federalism, the Bill of Rights’ 10th Amendment holds that all rights and powers not specifically reserved to Congress by Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution or to be shared concurrently by the federal and state governments are reserved by either the states or by the people. The doctrine of states’ rights holds that the federal government is barred from interfering with certain rights “reserved” to the individual states by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Georgia is a right to work state, something that the nearly 11 million residents of Georgia support. The PRO Act is simply another example of the common overreach by the Federal government.

The PRO Act would advantage Big Labor bosses over small businesses in 51 unique ways. Among the worst is a provision that would void Georgia’s right to work law. This law protects workers from being forced to join a union or to pay union dues as a condition of their employment. Many of us believe this law has been a key ingredient of our local and regional economic success. After all, studies show right to work states (there are 27 of them in all) have stronger economic growth and faster private sector job growth that states in which union membership is compulsory.

Workers would lose a considerable amount of control over their own careers if the PRO Act were to become law. For example, they would lose their right to a secret ballot in union elections. Instead, the PRO Act would mandate a system called card check, in which workers’ preferences for, or opposition to, forming a union would be public. It’s not hard to envision a scenario under which this provision could lead to intimidation tactics by overzealous labor organizers, especially when coupled with a separate provision that puts sensitive personal worker information into the hands of those same organizers.

Many workers in the gig economy, such as ride share drivers or freelance writers, appreciate the flexibility of these jobs that allow them to ratchet their hours up or down depending on their lifestyle. This all ends with the PRO Act, which would reclassify them as employees, likely eliminating thousands of these jobs here in Georgia alone.

Can the PRO Act be stopped? Well, yes … and maybe not.

The PRO Act itself is stalled out in the Senate. But clever politicians have attempted to sneak some of its job-killing provisions into other bills. If that strategy fails, Labor Bosses are likely to lean heavily on the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees union elections.

Hall County employers need Senator Raphael Warnock to step up and put the interests of job creators and workers ahead of those of Big Labor. He should oppose the PRO Act in whatever legislative form it takes.

Since 2016, Matt Dubnik has represented the 29th District in the Georgia House of Representatives, which includes Gainesville, Oakwood, and other parts of Hall County.