If enacted, the PRO Act will pose far-reaching negative impacts on workers, small businesses, employers, contractors, and unions alike.
This week, NSBA wrote a letter to small-business leaders in Congress to express caution around the Protecting the Right to Organize (“PRO”) Act (H.R. 20, S. 567).
If enacted, the PRO Act would allow secondary picketing and protesting from unions at storefronts that happen to sell a brand or item affiliated with a union strike or altercation, enabling protestors to direct aggression toward small businesses and their employees on Main Street.
Known as secondary boycotts, the PRO Act would make it legal for protestors to disrupt the flow of business and commerce by granting protections to protests at individual storefronts that have no legal affiliation to the boycott or union dispute at hand.
The Act also implements a slew of new and daunting regulations changes that businesses must comply with, increasing the amount of paperwork and red tape that is associated with keeping a small business in compliance with the law.
At a time in which business owners are just beginning to step out of the economic turmoil faced during the pandemic, the PRO Act would place more barriers on small-business owners who are simply trying to keep their doors open and heads above water.
Follow NSBA for developments on the PRO Act, and read our full letter to Congress here, including specifics on how this ill-crafted policy could harm small business.