My third submission on behalf of Young Voices in The Virginian Pilot. (And crossposted at Daily Press.) It centers around the PRO Act and how it’ll adversely affect the 3.1 million non-unionized workers here in Virginia. An excerpt below:
Virginia recently clinched the No. 1 spot as the best state to do business in the United States. But our economic-leader status could very well be stripped very soon if Congress has anything to do about it and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is enacted into law.
Right now, the pro-labor PRO Act is getting tossed around in Washington. It purports to be pro-worker, but it’s the exact opposite. It’s a piece of legislation that would make us all worse off.
First, the PRO Act would repeal our state’s long standing right-to-work law. Adopted in 1947, that law makes union membership a choice and not conditional on employment. Moreover, the measure enjoys broad bipartisan support and has contributed to Virginia’s prosperous, durable business climate.
States with right-to-work laws, including ours, boast “increased self-reported current life satisfaction, expected future life satisfaction, and sentiments about current and future economic activity among workers.” These sentiments were similarly observed in unionized workers, as well.