Democrats’ PRO Act threatens minority-owned businesses

By To the editor:

Alaska businesses—particularly minority owned ones like mine—would suffer under a proposed bill being pushed by Democrats in Congress.

Among its many flaws, this bill would force employees to vote on unionization by signing authorization cards in front of coworkers and union organizers, scrapping their long-held right to a private ballot vote. It would also force employers to give union officials access to private employee information like home address and telephone number, further violating workers’ right to privacy and exposing workers and their families to potential harassment.

For minority contractors, workers, and sole proprietors like me, the PRO Act could make it significantly harder to work with other businesses. First, it would redefine what it means to be a “joint employer,” essentially when two or more businesses are responsible for the same employee, making it easier to classify a business as a joint employer. This would create massive new costs for businesses by making them liable for the actions of their vendors, suppliers, and contractors. That could discourage many of my clients from working with my company, hurting my bottom line.

Second, this bill would completely redefine the criteria for determining whether a worker is a full-time employee or an independent contractor, making it much harder to qualify as the latter. Both this change in the change to the joint employer definition would have negative implications for minority-owned businesses—which tend to be unionized at a much lower rate than white-owned businesses—by making it even harder to maintain existing contractual relationships.

The PRO Act is a blatant power grab by unions at the expense of Alaska workers and businesses. Senator Lisa Murkowski should oppose this harmful legislation and help keep Alaska businesses and our entire economy strong.

Anthony Green,

Anchorage