# Plain Language Summary: Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023

This bill is designed to make it easier for workers to form unions and harder for employers to stop them. Named after a longtime labor leader, the law changes several rules that currently favor employers during union organizing campaigns. The main changes include allowing workers to organize through electronic means like email and text, requiring employers to give unions access to workers during organizing efforts, and making it faster to hold union elections so there's less time for companies to discourage workers from joining.

The bill also strengthens protections for workers who try to organize. It makes it illegal for employers to threaten, interrogate, or punish workers for union activities, and it increases penalties when companies break these rules. Currently, if a company fires someone for trying to start a union, the consequences are relatively mild. Under this bill, those consequences would be much steeper, making employers think twice before retaliating. The law also prevents employers from forcing workers to attend anti-union meetings and gives workers more power to negotiate their first contract after forming a union.

For everyday workers, this means you'd have more protection if you wanted to organize with coworkers to negotiate better pay, benefits, or working conditions. For employers, especially smaller businesses, this means new obligations during union campaigns and higher financial risks if they're found to have interfered with organizing efforts. The bill essentially tips the scales that currently favor management, aiming to level the playing field between workers and their employers when it comes to unionization.

Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023

Sanders, Bernard

Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2023 This bill expands various labor protections related to employees' rights to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace. Specifically, it revises the definitions of employee, supervisor, and employer to broaden the scope of individuals covered by the fair labor standards; permits labor organizations to encourage participation of union members in strikes initiated by employees represented by a different labor organization (i.e., secondary strikes); and prohibits employers from bringing claims against unions that conduct such secondary strikes. The bill also allows collective bargaining agreements to require all employees represented by the bargaining unit to contribute fees to the labor organization for the cost of such representation, notwithstanding a state law to the contrary, and it expands unfair labor practices to include prohibitions against replacement of, or discrimination against, workers who participate in strikes. The bill makes it an unfair labor practice to require or coerce employees to attend employer meetings designed to discourage union membership and prohibits employers from entering into agreements with employees under which employees waive the right to pursue or a join collective or class-action litigation. Finally, the bill addresses the procedures for union representation elections, modifies the protections against unfair labor practices that result in serious economic harm, and establishes penalties and permits injunctive relief against entities that fail to comply with National Labor Relations Board orders.