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**AUGUST 13, 2021**

Kuttner on TAP

In the Budget Scramble, Don't Forget Worker Rights

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The budget reconciliation process is the rare chance to pass major
legislation with a simple Senate majority, and Democratic leaders are
hoping to include as much of the progressive agenda as possible in the
$3.5 trillion measure. The budget rules require that items included
under reconciliation must have a fiscal or revenue impact; otherwise
they are out of order.

That pretty much precludes using reconciliation to get voting rights.
Biden, Schumer, and company will have to find another way to bring Joe
Manchin around for a one-time filibuster waiver. These negotiations are
ongoing. Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, at ground zero of voter
suppression, has been a key bridge to Joe Manchin.

But labor law reform is another, more ambiguous story. The latest
version of Wagner Act reform, the PRO Act (standing for Protecting the
Right to Organize) is much tougher than its failed predecessors, which
also suffered from only lukewarm backing by presidents Obama, Clinton,
and Carter.

The PRO Act would prohibit management from propagandizing workers in the
context of union representation elections, a management right that was
added in the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 over President
Truman's veto. PRO would also overturn Taft-Hartley's ban on
sympathy strikes by other unions; and it would undercut the "right to
work" provision of Taft-Hartley, which allows states to pass laws
barring unions from collecting union dues.

The PRO Act would strengthen fair elections for union representation in
other ways
as well. It passed the House last March-and of course faces a
filibuster in the Senate.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, however, referred to "labor
enforcement and penalties" when he introduced his summary

of the budget resolution. This was approved as a reconciliation
framework by a 50-49 majority.

There are some who think that a version of the PRO Act could pass the
revenue test in budget reconciliation by imposing stiff fines or taxes
on employers found in violation of worker rights. This option has
anti-union forces

worried. But it's pretty clear that the whole PRO Act could not be
passed as part of reconciliation.

Worker rights are as important in a democracy as voting rights. In all
of the complex jockeying about the details of budget reconciliation and
Senate rules, it remains to be seen where restoration of worker rights
ends up, in the hierarchy of goals of the Democratic leadership. This is
further complicated because business Democrats support voting rights.
They are hostile to labor rights.

With all of the attention on the public-investment package, voting
rights and labor rights, and for that matter immigration rights, are as
important as public investments. They are important in their own right,
but they will dictate whether Democrats can keep governing.

These other issues may well require Senate rules change, and should be
seen as all of a piece. Schumer and Pelosi need to lead on this, as on
public investments. There is simply no higher priority.

~ ROBERT KUTTNER

Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter

Robert Kuttner's latest book is
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.

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