(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
By Rep. Barry Fleming
Columbia County is one of the fastest growing areas in Georgia, having grown by 30% since 2010. That’s because families are flocking to where the jobs are. And our local economy is rocking. Amazon is just the biggest name to expand to the Central Savanah River Area. A couple hundred additional smaller companies have moved here, as well. They know that the policies out of the State Capitol are pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-opportunity.
The same cannot be said for the policies out of Washington. Pandemic overreach, supply chain debacles, inflation, higher taxes, and overregulation all combine to make everyday like harder for business owners small and large alike, and the Georgians who work for them.
It could get much worse soon.
President Joe Biden and Georgia senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have a plan to sneak through a vote on the so-called Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the PRO Act. The bill is misnamed, as it wouldn’t so much protect the right to unionize as it would force workers into joining a union, and it would give union bosses and federal bureaucrats more control over Georgia’s workplaces.
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Most strikingly, the PRO Act would outlaw state right-to-work laws, like we have here in Georgia. Right-to-work laws affirm worker majorities rights to form a union while at the same time protect the individual workers from being forced to join it. Under the PRO Act, for example, if the employees of a Starbuck vote to unionize, the union would be able to require each employee to join it under penalty of termination. Incidentally, union dues in Georgia average almost $1,000 per year.
Warnock and Ossoff’s bill would make it easier for union reps to organize workplaces all across Georgia. One of their ideas is to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections. Imagine a world in which workers would have to declare whether or not they back the union in front of their colleagues and the union bosses themselves. Outrageously, the PRO Act would also make employers share sensitive worker information with union organizers, a sure recipe for harassment and intimidation.
The authors of this bill do not have the best interests of Georgia’s workers in mind. It is being pushed by union bosses, who are perpetually interested in growing their fiefdoms, and shadowy progressive activist groups that have an inordinate amount of authority in the Congressional halls of power. They don’t care how many jobs it will cost or how many workers it will harm.
For Senators Warnock and Ossoff, it is a time for choosing. Do they support Georgia’s employers and workers or do they side with Biden, the big labor bosses, and the progressive left?
Barry Fleming represents District 121 in the Georgia House of Representatives.
