March 07, 2025

Merkley, Wyden, Bipartisan Colleagues Push to Protect the Rights of Oregon, America’s Workers

Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden joined Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressional and labor leaders to reintroduce the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act). This bipartisan legislation protects the rights of workers in Oregon and nationwide to stand together and bargain for fairer wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. The legislation was named in honor of late AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka.

“As the son of a union machinist, I saw firsthand the difference a strong union can make in delivering the fair wages and robust workplace protections that every worker deserves,” Merkley said. “Workers across the nation are under threat by Trump and the billionaires and the big corporations he empowers. Passing the PRO Act would give America’s workers a fighting chance to improve their workplace with better pay, benefits, and safety through collectively bargaining for a better deal.”

“This legislation is very timely and essential with Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their billionaire buddies targeting workers’ most basic rights and most basic protections that were secured over decades by unions,” Wyden said. “I strongly support the PRO Act because it would protect workers’ hard-earned and historic rights to unionize and advocate for better wages, benefits and working conditions that strengthen quality of life for them, their families and our communities.”

“Americans believe in the power of unions and tens of millions of working people would become union members tomorrow if they could. But American labor law is broken, weighted on the side of the bosses and against the workers. In too many workplaces, in too many industries across the country, big corporations and billionaire CEOs still retaliate against us for organizing. They refuse to negotiate our contracts, force us to sit through hours of anti-union propaganda, and engage in illegal union-busting every day. Now they have an unelected, unaccountable, union-buster trying to illegally fire tens of thousands of our fellow workers in federal jobs and an administration rolling back the workplace protections. The PRO Act is long overdue, and the American people agree. We urge elected leaders of both parties to move this critical legislation forward so that all workers have the chance to stand together and build better lives for themselves and their families,” said AFL-CIO President and Oregonian Liz Shuler.

Large corporations and the wealthy continue to capture the rewards of a growing economy while working families and middle-class Americans are left behind. From 1979 to 2023, annual wages for the bottom 90 percent of households increased just 44 percent, while average incomes for the wealthiest 1 percent increased more than 180 percent.

Unions are critical to increasing wages and creating a strong economy that rewards hardworking people. Through the power of collective bargaining, the typical union worker earns 16 percent more than the typical non-union worker.

The American people’s support for unions is surging. According to a 2024 Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans approve of labor unions — remaining at near record highs. Despite growing support for unions, billionaire- and special interest-funded attacks on the rights of workers, unions and labor laws have eroded union density and made it harder for workers to organize. The share of American workers who are union members has fallen from roughly one in three workers in 1956 to a new low of 9.9 percent in 2024. The PRO Act restores fairness to the economy by strengthening the federal law that protects the right of workers to join a union and bargain for higher pay, better benefits and safer workplaces.

The PRO Act would protect the right to organize and collectively bargain by:

  1. Bolstering remedies and punishing violations of the rights of workers through authorizing meaningful penalties for employers that violate their rights, strengthening support for workers who suffer retaliation for exercising their rights and authorizing a private right of action for violation of the rights of workers.
  2. Strengthening the rights of workers to join together and negotiate for better working conditions by enhancing their right to support secondary boycotts, ensuring unions can collect “fair share” fees, modernizing the union election process and facilitating initial collective bargaining agreements.
  3. Restoring fairness to an economy rigged against workers by closing loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors and increasing transparency in labor-management relations.

Merkley, Wyden, and Sanders introduced the legislation alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

In the House, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) led 210 Democratic and Republican cosponsors.

Additionally, more than 18 organizations endorsed the PRO Act, including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Autoworkers (UAW), United Steelworkers (USW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), National Nurses United (NNU), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), National Postal Mail Handlers Union (NPMHU), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), the American Federation of Musicians, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Transport Workers Union (TWU), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT).

Read the bill text here.

Read a fact sheet here.

Read a section-by-section summary here.