On Wednesday, the House Committee on Education and Labor passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 2474. The bold proposal that would restore fairness to the economy by protecting workers' rights to stand together and negotiate for better working conditions has now cleared an important hurdle in the legislative process. CWA members successfully mobilized to make sure the bill made it through the committee without being watered down, and will now be pushing for a vote by the full House of Representatives for the strong pro-worker bill.

"At a time when wages haven't even kept pace with inflation, the PRO Act will give workers a fighting chance to make sure they're compensated fairly for their hard work," CWA President Chris Shelton said in a statement.

The PRO Act will empower workers across the country by strengthening their right to act collectively and join together in a union. It will remove some of the barriers that workers face when bargaining for fair wages, improved benefits, and a more secure retirement. Additionally, the PRO Act will improve protections for workers who face anti-union discrimination, retaliation, and other coercive acts by their employers.

All of the Democrats on the committee who were present voted in favor of supporting working people by moving the bill forward, while none of the Republican committee members did.

CWA District 3 Vice President Richard Honeycutt's op-ed highlighting how CWA members in the Southeast held a successful unfair labor practice strike to stand up to AT&T was featured in Business Insider this week:

Some say the era of corporate accountability is here, pointing to statements like the one recently put out by the Business Roundtable in which executives from companies like JPMorgan Chase, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, and Walmart affirmed their commitment to doing right by customers, employees, and the communities in which they work.

But with another Labor Day behind us, and now 49,000 General Motors employees represented by the United Automobile Workers on strike around the U.S., the truth is that trusting corporations to hold themselves accountable is like trusting the fox to guard the henhouse. True accountability comes from workers who join together to fight for fairness, respect, and dignity for themselves and their communities.

That was made clear when more than 20,000 members of my union across nine Southeastern states launched an unfair-labor-practice strike against AT&T — the largest private-sector strike in the South in over a decade.

Read more here.

On Tuesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued an historic decision finding reasonable cause that seven American employers violated federal law when they posted job ads on Facebook that excluded women, older workers, or both, from getting those ads. The employers were Capital One, Edward Jones, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Enterprise Holdings, Renewal by Andersen, Drive Time Auto, and Sandhills Publishing Co.  

Federal law bars employers from engaging in discriminatory advertising and hiring based on sex, age, and other statuses. Since 2018, CWA and several workers have filed discrimination charges against 66 employers that allegedly excluded older workers, women, or both from their job ads on Facebook.

"All workers deserve a fair chance to get a good job," said Sara Steffens, CWA Secretary-Treasurer. "The EEOC's rulings should send employers a strong message that they can't unfairly lock workers out of opportunities based on their gender or age. CWA will continue to fight to hold employers accountable for unjust discrimination."