Revitalizing Unions

United we bargain, divided we beg. We believe that a strong, radical labor movement is the key to moving our economy away from carbon, reducing income and wealth inequality, and raising the standard of living for the working class.

1. Membership Expansion Create a national structure to provide stable funding for rapid expansion of union membership: the Revitalize Unions Now (RUN) Act. The RUN Act will:

• Provide training and administrative resources for new unionization efforts.

• Subsidize union dues at 100% for all union members, including retired union workers who continue to pay dues.

• Extend federal unemployment benefits to striking workers and guarantee the right to strike to all federal workers.

• Guarantee the right of all public workers to collectively bargain (H.R. 3463 in 2019)

• Require all non-unionized businesses with 20++ or more employees to hold quarterly votes on unionization.

• Require all non-unionized businesses with fewer than 20 employees to pay no less than ⅔ of total profits in bonuses/dividends to all employees.

​ 2. End Forced Arbitration End all forced arbitration. Workers deserve their day in court.​ ​ 3. Raise the Wage Pass federal legislation similar to the Raise the Wage Act (H.R. 582 in 2019) to guarantee all American workers a living wage as quickly as possible. Create incentives for shared ownership/co-ops to increase workers' total share of the economy and the product of their labor. ​ 4. End "At-Will" Employment Federally ban "At-Will Employment" statutes. Pass federal legislation guaranteeing just-cause employment for all workers. ​ 5. Eliminate Overtime Exemptions Eliminate all overtime exemptions for jobs that pay less than triple the median US wage. Eliminate all overtime exemptions for farm, transportation, and all other "heavy work" or hazardous jobs. ​ 6. Overtime Pay Create a progressive overtime pay standard that increases the rate of additional hourly pay on an exponential curve. ​ 7. Union-Busters Get Busted Utilize civil asset forfeiture to acquire all companies found guilty of violating workers' right to unionize and other workplace protections, and transfer full ownership of of the offending company to the workers at that company. ​ 8. Union Formation Make it easier to form a union, with a simple majority of workers voting in favor via majority sign-up (or "card-check") elections. ​ 9. Penalty Expansion Expand and enforce penalties on companies that violate labor laws, including for firing workers who try to organize a union. These moves are illegal, but nowadays are only penalized by forcing employers to repay some wages to the fired workers, a punishment so light that many employers treat it as just a cost of doing business. I will vote to create stringent penalties in order to shut down this illegal behavior. ​ 10. Sectoral Bargaining Amend the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 to transition from enterprise bargaining to a hybrid system of national and sectoral bargaining. Historical data are clear on which system is better for workers, and we must adopt that system. ​ 11. Repeal Taft-Hartley Repeal Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act. This law allows workers to get all the benefits of their local union without paying union dues. It pits underpaid workers against their own interests and is deliberate class warfare. ​ 12. Workers' Right to Refusal Federally guarantee workers the first right of refusal for any sale, merger, acquisition, outsourcing, or insolvency in their workplace. ​ 13. The Workers' Bank Establish a workers’ public investment bank to fund the purchase of companies to transition to worker ownership during “right-of-refusal” situations. ​ 14. The PRO Act Pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (H.R. 2474 in 2019), which amends the National Labor Relations Act and related labor laws to extend additional protections to union workers. ​ 15. No Exceptions Eliminate all exemptions from existing workplace protections in federal law. This includes domestic and agricultural workers, who currently do not enjoy protections under FLSA and NLRA. ​ 16. Fair Scheduling Pass federal legislation guaranteeing fair scheduling requirements that apply, without exception, to all US employers. ​ 17. Board Representation Federally guarantee workers 50% representation on the board of all companies with annual revenues in excess of 50 million USD. Massive corporations that exclusively serve investors have proven to be socially and environmentally destructive. The people making decisions must change.