Stuck on 45 cosponsors for over a month, Senate majority leader makes clear PRO Act must have at least 50 cosponsors before a Senate floor vote takes place

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, NY) confirmed something McHenry County Blog has suspected for quite some time about the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act — the legislation passed in the House on March 9 doesn’t have 50 votes for passage in the Senate.

According to The Intercept_ in an article published Wednesday, March 24, Schumer told AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka PRO Act proponents must convince at least 5 more Senators to cosponsor the legislation in the Senate before a floor vote of any kind will take place.

The official tally will be the cosponsors to S. 420, which is the Senate version of the PRO Act filed on February 24 sponsored by Senator Patty Murray (D, WA), with 44 cosponsors who are all Democrats, plus independent Bernie Sanders.

The House version is H.R. 842.

Given the Senate filibuster has been a topic of discussion on other legislation in the U.S. Senate, this published article concerning the PRO Act confirmed the Democratic majority (48 Democrats, plus 2 independents who caucus with the Democrats) is not 100% behind the PRO Act.

Put another way, until all 50 are cosponsoring the PRO Act, the filibuster is not the problem.

As discussed previously on McHenry County Blog, there are three main objections (among many) to the PRO Act:

• Workers PII data will be given to unions trying to establish a new local to allow unions to influence workers prior to a union organizing vote
• Eliminating the 27 states, plus the territory of Guam, right-to-work laws protecting workers self-determination from union coercion
• Implementing the ABC test for worker classification, which threatens the livelihoods of 59 million independent contractors including freelancers and gig economy workers

Of the five non-Republican Senators who’ve not signed-on to the PRO Act, the four Democrats are from right-to-work states:

• Mark Kelly (AZ)
• Joe Manchin (WV)
• Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)
• Mark Warner (VA)

Independent Senator Angus King (ME) told The Intercept_ through a spokesperson this week via email:

“He’s [Senator King] interested in it and having conversations with Maine stakeholders and experts before making a final decision.”

Matthew Felling, spokesperson for Senator Angus King (I, ME), 3/24/21

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In the past 2 1/2 weeks, there has been multiple developments concerning the PRO Act since its House passage.

For example on March 12, the Freelancers Union issued a statement that while they continue to support the PRO Act:

“…we do not advocate for the use of the ABC test in any legislation.”

Freelancers Union website, 3/12/21

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But the most direct target of big labor has been freelancers, whom, as labor lawyer Brandon Magner points out is an exception to the “usual suspects” (big business) who oppose the PRO Act.

The AFL-CIO issued another “fact sheet” concerning freelancers and the PRO Act. This prompted another “mark-up” from NJ-based freelancer and Freelancers USA co-leader Kim Kavin, tweeting on March 18:

“It’s as if the AFL-CIO keeps dumping bags of poop on our front porch, and we have to keep lighting them on fire and throwing them back.

“Here are our edits to the so-called “fact sheet” the AFL-CIO released yesterday about the PRO Act.”

The full article in The Intercept_ revealing Schumer’s call for 50 cosponsors for the PRO Act in the Senate can be viewed here.