On June 26, ABC announced its strong support for the reintroduction of the Employee Rights Act in the 119th Congress, urging the swift consideration of the ERA to protect worker freedoms nationwide. 

“Worker choice, flexibility and privacy are essential to the success of the construction industry, and the Employee Rights Act delivers much-needed balance to our nation’s labor laws,” said Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of federal affairs. “This bill protects all workers’ right to a secret ballot, their control over personal contact information and their freedom to work as independent contractors if they choose. Congress must act now to advance this pro-worker, pro-growth legislation and stop harmful policies that undermine workforce freedoms.”
 
Introduced by Rep. Rick Allen, R-Ga., the ERA would:

• Guarantee secret ballot union elections on jobsites
• Safeguard worker privacy and limit forced disclosure of personal information
• Provide legal clarity for independent contractors
• Clarifies the definition of a joint employer
• Prevent the use of employee dues for union political campaigns without consent

On May 15 the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing titled, “Reclaiming OSHA’s Mission: Ensuring Safety Without Overreach.” Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committee calling for the withdrawal of two Biden-era OSHA regulations, the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Settings Proposed Rule and the Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process Final Rule.

Regarding the Heat rule, ABC noted that the rule imposes prescriptive, complicated requirements on construction industry employers, limiting all flexibility, which could weaken contractor efforts to prevent heat stress for workers. ABC added through the Worker Walkaround rule, OSHA is injecting itself into labor-management disputes and casting doubt on its status as a neutral enforcer of the law. This final rule negatively impacts the rights of employers while simultaneously ignoring the rights of the majority of employees who have not authorized a union to represent them.

On March 6, Sen. Sanders, D-Vt., and Rep. Scott, D-Va., reintroduced the ABC-opposed PRO Act in the 119th Congress.

On March 4, the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace sent a letter to the Hill urging Congress to oppose the bill.

This radical legislation includes dozens of provisions that would violate workers’ free choice and privacy rights, force unions on employees who have voted against such representation, cost millions of American jobs, threaten vital supply chains and greatly hinder our economy. The bill boosts union membership at the expense of American workers and small businesses.

Of the many radical provisions in the PRO Act, the bill includes provisions that:

• Strip away workers’ privacy rights and key protections guaranteeing workers’ free choice through secret ballots in union representation elections
• Curb opportunities for people to work independently through independent contractor roles
• Revoke independently enacted state right-to-work protections and require workers to pay union dues as a condition of employment
• Change the legal standard for joint-employer liability, reducing opportunities for our country’s small and local businesses through subcontracts, licensing and franchising
• Violate employers’ right to attorney-client confidentiality on complex labor law issues, making it harder for businesses, particularly small businesses, to secure legal advice
• Impose government control over private contracts
• Infringe on the due process rights of employers
• Remove secondary boycott protections

The reintroduction of this legislation represents the latest attempt to implement labor law policies that have previously been rejected by the judicial system, opposed on a bipartisan basis in Congress and/or withdrawn by the agencies that prior administrations tried to use to implement the policies unilaterally. All of these entities realized those policies violated the law, exceeded the authority granted to the implementing agencies or would cause serious damage to the American workplace.

On Dec. 11, in a win for ABC and its members, the U.S. Senate rejected the confirmation of Lauren McFerran for a third term as chair of the National Labor Relations Board in a 49-50 vote. Her nomination threatened Democratic control of the NLRB through August 2026, two years into President-elect Donald Trump’s term. On Dec. 10, ABC sent a Key Vote letter to U.S. Senators urging them to vote “No” on her nomination

In an ABC statement, Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of legislative & political affairs, stated, “Under McFerran’s leadership, the NLRB has issued decisions and expanded interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act that have been rejected by the business community, Congress and federal courts.” In a statement released by the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, Swearingen added, “Her confirmation would have blocked President-Elect Trump from pursuing his policy agenda – an agenda that the voters resoundingly supported in the election.”

 On Dec. 3, the CDW sent a letter signed by 53 organizations to the U.S. Senate expressing concerns with her tenure. ABC members from around the country sent Action Alerts to their senators urging them to vote “No” on her confirmation.

ABC and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace issued letters of support for H.J.Res.203, Rep. Burlison's Congressional Review Act challenge to the NLRB's Representation-Case Procedures Final Rule, which was issued on August 1. If passed, the CRA would nullify the final rule, and the Board would be prohibited from issuing a substantially similar rule in the future. 

The NLRB's Final Rule eliminated common sense measures meant to protect workers' rights during the union representation election process, including:

• Reinstated the Board's "blocking charge" policy, which allows unions to halt representation or decertification elections by alleging the employer has committed unfair labor practices until the charges are resolved;
• Eliminated the 45-day window in which employees could challenge a union's majority support and demand a secret ballot election after their employer has voluntarily recognized the union based on signed authorization cards, or "card check;"
• Rescinded the requirement that unions in the construction industry maintain proof of majority support if they want an exclusive collective bargaining relationships that is resistant to challenge

These policies force employees into unions they may not want and make it more difficult for employees to decertify unions that no longer have support from the workforce, undermining employee free choice.

In February 2023, ABC submitted comments in opposition to the NLRB proposed rule. ABC also signed on to CDW’s comment letter along with 12 other employer organizations. CDW argued that the proposed rulemaking would “negatively affect the Board’s representation case jurisprudence, undermine the agency’s statutory goals and reputation, diminish employee free choice and upset the balance of countervailing interests.” Yet, consistent with NLRB Chair Lauren McFerran’s record, the NLRB disregarded stakeholder feedback and advanced a radical rulemaking that strips employees of their rights in the workplace.

On June 12, the U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing titled “NLRB Overreach: Trampling on Workers’ Rights and Fostering Unfairness.” The hearing focused on the National Labor Relations Board’s bad decisions and degradation of rights and protections under Chair Lauren McFerran’s failed leadership. Specifically, members noted that the NLRB has restricted employee free choice through decisions that impact the right to free and fair representation elections, the definition of an independent contractor under the NLRA, a dangerous expansion of the definition of Joint Employer, and the ability to register a decertification election.

Ahead of the hearing, the ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace sent a letter to the committee regarding concerns over McFerran’s renomination to serve as chair of the Board.

On May 22, the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing entitled: "Big Labor Lies: Exposing Union Tactics to Undermine Free and Fair Elections.” Prior to the hearing, ABC submitted comments highlighting the harms of salting, card check and neutrality agreements.

The full committee hearing can be seen here.

On March 25, ABC sent a letter to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in support of H.R. 7784, the Start Applying Labor Transparency Act, introduced by Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah. The SALT Act would require labor organizations and their consultants to report when they engage in a coercive tactic known as “salting”— a process where unions send professionally trained organizers into merit shop workplaces under the guise of seeking employment. Once hired, these “salts” often try to create a toxic work environment, mislead co-workers and destroy their employers or deliberately increase costs through various actions, all while concealing that their purpose in the workplace is to serve the interests of organized labor.

On June 20, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a markup of ABC-opposed legislation including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, Paycheck Fairness Act, and Healthy Families Act. Ahead of the hearing, ABC sent a letter to the committee highlighting concerns with the bills marked up in committee and urging members of the committee to oppose the partisan proposals being considered. ABC also joined with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to oppose the proposals.

The markup also considered several ABC-backed and Republican led amendments that would limit the damage of these anti-business, anti-worker legislative proposals, including amendments that would address the PRO Act’s provisions on employee privacy, independent contractors, secondary boycotts, and joint employer. Ranking Member Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also spoke about the ABC-supporting and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., sponsored Employee Rights Act, which would allow workers the freedom and protection they need to decide how they make a living for themselves and their families. You can view the full committee markup here.

On May 23, ABC submitted comments to the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions ahead of the subcommittee’s hearing entitled, “Protecting Employees’ Rights: Ensuring Fair Elections at the NLRB.” ABC’s letter highlighted the value of secret ballot elections to ensure that workers have a privacy protected vote that reflects their true preference for unionization in their workplace, criticized the NLRB for recent rulings, and expressed support for the Employee Rights Act that ensures the freedoms, rights, and choices of all America’s workers. You can view the full letter that was submitted for the record here.