AJR52: Joint Resolution Text

LRB-3081/1

CMH:emw&amn

2021 - 2022 LEGISLATURE

2021 Assembly JOINT RESOLUTION 52

May 13, 2021 - Introduced by Representatives Sinicki, Hintz, Ortiz-Velez, Milroy, Ohnstad, Shankland, Hesselbein, Spreitzer, McGuire, Emerson, Baldeh, Billings, Brostoff, Cabrera, Conley, Goyke, Hong, B. Meyers, Neubauer, Shelton, Subeck, Bowen, Doyle, Drake, Hebl, Pope, Snodgrass, Stubbs, Vining, Vruwink, Anderson, Riemer, Considine, Moore Omokunde, S. Rodriguez, L. Myers, Haywood and Andraca, cosponsored by Senators Wirch, Ringhand, Bewley, Smith, Johnson, Erpenbach, Carpenter, Pfaff, L. Taylor, Larson, Agard and Roys. Referred to Committee on Rules.

AJR52,1,2 Relating to: expressing support for the federal Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act.

AJR52,1,7 Whereas, inequality in the United States and Wisconsin has skyrocketed due to the failure of federal policy makers to pass pro-worker labor laws and properly administer the federal National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which has been dismantled for several decades to make it more difficult for workers to form unions; and

AJR52,1,14 Whereas, the proposed federal Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act is the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression, as it stands to give workers the free and fair choice of whether to form a union. It also ensures workers can reach a first contract quickly after a union is recognized; ends employers' practices of punishing striking workers by hiring permanent replacements; and holds corporations accountable with real penalties for illegally retaliating against workers who organize; and

AJR52,2,5 Whereas, the PRO Act will help make America's economy work for working people and help raise stagnant wages that only increased 9 percent from 1973 to 2013, while productivity increased 74 percent over that same time period. Previously, wages increased 91 percent from 1948 to 1972, while productivity increased 108 percent over that same time period; and

AJR52,2,7 Whereas, wage stagnation and runaway inequality of political, social, and economic power have undermined the public's faith in our democracy; and

AJR52,2,10 Whereas, through the expansion of collective bargaining under the PRO Act, there will be increases in pay and protections for women, people of color, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community; and

AJR52,2,13 Whereas, America must build back better with unions by making the PRO Act the law of the land, increasing worker power and rebuilding our economy fairly for all of us; and

AJR52,2,16 Whereas, the United States House of Representatives passed the PRO Act with bipartisan support on March 9, 2021, and it is now before the United States Senate; now, therefore, be it

AJR52,2,20 Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the Wisconsin Legislature finds that the federal PRO Act stands to greatly increase economic opportunity in Wisconsin and the country and to empower workers through the promotion and expansion of collective bargaining; and, be it further

AJR52,2,22 Resolved, That the assembly chief clerk will send a copy of this resolution to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

AJR52,2,23 (End)