Nevada Labor Hosts Virtual PRO Act Roundtable with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
This morning, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto joined Nevada State AFL-CIO Executive Secretary-Treasurer Rusty McAllister, Southern Nevada Central Labor Council Secretary-Treasurer Beverly Williams, and Northern Nevada Central Labor Council President Mike Pilcher for a virtual roundtable conversation about the PRO Act. The conversation can be viewed in its entirety here on Facebook.
“Growing up in a union family, I saw firsthand how organized labor can help lift up working families. The PRO Act would strengthen America’s unions and make it easier for workers to stand together to defend access to strong benefits and protections,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Good union jobs can make an enormous difference in the lives of working families, and I’ll continue working in the Senate to pass this vital legislation.”
“In Nevada, we are fortunate that both of our Senators have agreed to cosponsor the PRO Act, and recognize that workers who are represented by unions earn higher pay, have safer workplaces, and are more likely to have employer-sponsored health care and retirement plans,” McAllister said. “Senator Cortez Masto understands that Nevada’s workers deserve a voice on the job and at the bargaining table. It’s time for a change. It’s time for accountability and action. It’s time to pass the PRO Act.”
“We need the PRO Act to level the playing field and give working people a real say in our future.
Senator Cortez Masto’s support of this bill means so much to the labor movement — and the PRO Act means more money in the pockets of workers which helps our economy recover and buoys our working families as business reopens,” Williams said.
“Now more than ever, it is important that workers have a voice at the city, state and national levels so that they can change the economic playing field and share in our country’s prosperity. Organized labor has a long history of advocating for exactly that, building a new economy from the ground up instead of the top down. The PRO Act is the next step in that journey,” Pilcher said.
The PRO Act is a generational opportunity and the cornerstone of the AFL-CIO’s Workers First Agenda. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the PRO Act in 2020, but an anti-worker majority blocked it in the Senate.
The PRO Act is the most significant worker empowerment legislation since the Great Depression because it will:
Empower workers to exercise their freedom to organize and bargain.
Ensure that workers can reach a first contract quickly after a union is recognized.
End employers’ practice of punishing striking workers by hiring permanent replacements. Speaking up for labor rights is within every worker’s rights—and workers shouldn’t lose their jobs for it.
Hold corporations accountable by strengthening the National Labor Relations Board and allowing it to penalize employers who retaliate against working people in support of the union or collective bargaining.
Create pathways for workers to form unions, without fear, in newer industries like Big Tech.