“Immeasurable suffering to fund Billionaires,” Secretary Julie Su joins Union Leaders and Legislators at Briefing on the Protect LABOR Act
On Thursday, May 1, lead sponsors, union leaders, and partners hosted a briefing on H.2086 & S.1327, An Act Protecting Labor & Abolishing Barriers to Organizing Rights.
“Federal labor laws are vital to the fabric of worker protections across the country, but the very foundations of those laws are vulnerable under the Trump administration,” said Julie Su, former acting U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden and previous California Labor Secretary. “I was proud to lead the Labor Department under President Biden, when we expanded access to unions and worker protections. Today, we are seeing the erosion of rights and protections cemented over a century of hard-fought battles. When the federal government turns its back on working people, states like Massachusetts can step up to inoculate private sector workers and their unions from the existential threat posed by Donald Trump.”
“Massachusetts has nearly 200,000 private sector union members who could lose their right to a union at the stroke of a pen from Trump, Musk and their billionaire cronies. In just his first 100 days in office, Trump has illegally ripped up tens of thousands of union contracts for federal workers, attempted to illegally fire the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, and signed an Executive Order to remove the collective bargaining rights of two-thirds of the federal workforce,” said Chrissy Lynch, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, which represents nearly 500,000 members across over 800 local unions in the Commonwealth. “Right-wing corporate attacks on unions and the working class are not new, but the intensity and seriousness of these attacks are unprecedented. In Massachusetts, we have the opportunity to immediately protect private sector union rights if those rights are taken away at the federal level. The Protect LABOR Act is a key component of the Commonwealth’s response to the Trump administration’s attacks on the working class. Thank you to Representative Decker and Senator Feeney for leading this fight in the legislature alongside the Massachusetts labor movement.”
“Massachusetts must shield our union members from right-wing attacks at the federal level,” said Representative Marjorie Decker (D-Cambridge). “The ability to join a union is the surest pathway out of poverty and into the middle class. Growing up, my mother worked more than full time as a nursing assistant and still did not make enough money to lift our family out of poverty. However, I saw firsthand how our life changed for the brief period that she organized with SEIU, before they were union busted. If Donald Trump had his way, all union members would lose their union, its protections, and the wages and benefits that allow them to provide for their family. I’m proud to partner with Senator Feeney and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO to provide private sector union members in our Commonwealth with a backstop from federal attacks while improving upon the existing protections workers have under state law.”
“This Country was built on the hope of upward economic mobility and the promise of entry into the middle-class for hard working families. It’s clear throughout our Nation’s history that union membership, strong worker protections, and the rights of workers to bargain collectively is the most effective path to rebuilding a thriving middle-class. At 19 years old, armed only with a High School diploma, and a work ethic instilled in me by my parents, I did what my Dad did before me and signed a union card. That singular moment set me down a path that allowed me to buy our home in a community my wife and I love, the healthcare benefits we relied on time and time again, and a wage that allowed us to live comfortably. It’s also evident that in the first 100 days of the new administration, the Trump White House and their greed-driven fawners are hellbent on taking that all away. Massachusetts has always been a leader in worker’s rights, and with the passage of The Protect LABOR Act that I filed alongside Representative Decker, we will once again meet the moment we are in by safeguarding workers in the Commonwealth from the threat of federal attacks,” said Senator Paul Feeney (D-Foxborough).
About the Protect LABOR Act (H.2086/S.1327):
Private sector labor rights are established under the federal National Labor Relations Act - if the NLRA falls or is otherwise dismantled, there will be almost no statutory protections for private sector union organizing in the Commonwealth.
The Protect LABOR Act ensures that Massachusetts workers have strong labor protections even if those rights are no longer protected federally, including:
- Department of Labor Relations certification of pre-existing federally-recognized unions
- a presumption of employee status to ensure all workers, regardless of industry, have guaranteed access to wage, hour, and benefits protections
- electronic signatures for card signing when workers want to form a union
- written majority authorization for all newly formed unions
- in-person and electronic union elections to increase accessibility for all workers
- a ban on captive audience meetings
- protections from anti-union “right to work” policies