Congressman Mo Brooks Votes Against Bill that Forces American Citizens to Join Unions Against Their Will

Press Release

Tuesday, Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05) voted against H.R. 842, a radical union bill that tramples the rights of citizens by forcing them to enter into union servitude, thereby depriving citizens of their right to decide for themselves whether to join a union, among other bad things.

H.R. 842:

Overturns right-to-work laws in 27 states, including Alabama, thereby forcing citizens, against their will, to pay millions of dollars in dues to labor unions.
Allows union elections to be held at locations other than the business being organized, making the elections more susceptible to outside interference, coercion, and meddling.
Requires employers to hand over workers' private, personal information to union organizers, including home addresses, cellphone and landline numbers, personal email addresses, and more--without the consent of workers. By forcing this personal information to be shared, H.R. 842 will subject workers to harassment, physical intimidation, and deceit from union organizers.
Denies citizens' rights to vote by secret ballot on whether to join a union by imposing a biased "card-check" scheme.
Deprives individuals of entrepreneurial opportunities, the ability to set their own hours, and the flexibility to care for children and family members during the pandemic by creating burdensome and discredited legal standards for determining joint employment and independent contractor status. The PRO Act would eliminate the franchise industry and sharing economy as we know them.
Allows illegal aliens to join unions and sue employers and collect financial rewards far in excess of what legal employees can currently receive.
Assesses new penalties of up to $100,000 on small businesses for unfair labor practices, potentially shuttering thousands of small businesses and bankrupting small business owners who are already struggling to stay afloat.
Attacks the due process rights of employers by denying them the opportunity to be heard before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on matters pertaining to union representation. Only unions will be allowed to speak before the NLRB in these instances.
Jeopardizes supply chains for food, personal protective equipment, and other manufactured goods during a global pandemic and allows unions to target any business in America, pressuring companies to unionize by confronting their business partners.
Makes union bosses more powerful but less accountable to workers, increasing the risk of union corruption and wrongdoing. A recently concluded federal probe uncovered more than a decade of rampant corruption among the senior ranks of the United Auto Workers union, including money laundering, tax fraud, bribery, and embezzling workers' hard-earned union dues for lavish personal expenses, leading to the conviction of 15 union officials.[1]
Congressman Brooks said, "Washington Socialists absolutely love trampling on the rights of American citizens by dictating to Americans what they can and cannot do. Contrary to the limited government America's founders brilliantly created, in Socialist minds, there are no limits to what they can force down Americans' throats. Socialists today voted to force Americans, against their will, to join unions and pay union dues. The bill Socialists passed eliminates Alabama's Right-to-Work laws, which protect workers from being forced, as a condition of employment, to join a union and use their hard-earned cash to pay union dues. Twenty-seven states have Right-to-Work laws. Ignoring 10th Amendment States Rights, Socialists voted to replace duly-enacted state laws with Washington one-size-fits-all, top-down dictate."

Brooks continued, "Socialists should recall that the states created the federal government, not the other way around. The 10th Amendment ensures that "all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.' Socialists should consider their actions before attempting to implement a command and control style government with centralized power in Washington. America is a large, diverse country with dramatic differences among the states. America's Founders brilliantly created a government whereby individual states can boldly try varying public policies. Other states can then adopt the policies that work. In that way, America as a whole doesn't have to suffer when experimental policies are enacted and go wrong. Top-down, one-size-fits-all Washington dictates ensure that fewer states experiment, fewer states find good public policy, and everyone suffers when Washington gets it wrong, as Washington so often does."

Brooks concluded, "With out of state agitators attempting to force unionization on Amazon employees in Bessemer, it's more important than ever for Alabama leaders to voice their support for every Alabamians' Right-to-Work."

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