The passage of the Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act in the House was a big win for organized labor and a black eye for right-to-work advocates.
With a vote of 225 to 206, five Republicans broke party ranks to support it and Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar was the lone Democrat in opposition. The controversial measure would severely weaken the right-to-work laws in 27 states, which allow workers to opt out of paying union dues or joining a union at all in order to hold a job.
The PRO Act would allow unions to override such laws and collect dues from those who opt out to cover the cost of collective bargaining.
Barring elimination of the filibuster, however, the PRO Act is not expected to come out of the Senate for President Joe Biden's signature. But supporters and opponents of the controversial agreement were in agreement following the House vote Wednesday that the PRO Act would be a major issue in the 2022 elections.
In a memorandum circulated to conservatives following the vote, economist Stephen Moore of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity noted that 27 states have passed right-to-work laws.
"These mostly red right-to-work-states have created about twice as many jobs as the forced-union states," wrote Moore.
He also attached a list of 69 Democrats from the 27 right-to-work states who, in Moore's words, "voted against their own states."
Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, agrees that the PRO Act will be a winning issue for Republican opponents of the measure in the midterm elections next year.
"Right-to-work is good policy and good politics," he told Newsmax. "There is a reason no state has repealed a right-to-work law once it has been in effect in the last 70 years. In fact, in the elections immediately following the passage of right-to-work laws in Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, no legislator who voted for right-to-work was defeated.
"And in West Virginia and Kentucky, right-to-work support has grown since the laws have gone into effect."
Mix predicted that the 69 lawmakers from the 27 right-to-work states "who voted to force their workers to pay union dues and fees as a condition of getting or keeping a job will surely be hearing from the 8 out of 10 of their constituents who oppose forcing workers to pay union dues or fees or be fired."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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