House Concurrent Resolution 11 - Introduced
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 11
BY PRICHARD
1 A Concurrent Resolution relating to expressing support
2 for the federal Protecting the Right to Organize
3 Act.
4 WHEREAS, inequality in the United States of America
5 and Iowa has skyrocketed due to the failure of federal
6 policymakers to pass pro-worker labor laws and properly
7 administer the federal National Labor Relations Act of
8 1935, which has been dismantled for several decades to
9 make it more difficult for workers to form unions; and
10 WHEREAS, the proposed federal Protecting the
11 Right to Organize Act is the most significant worker
12 empowerment legislation since the Great Depression, as
13 it stands to give workers the free and fair choice of
14 whether to form a union, ensures workers can reach a
15 first contract quickly after a union is recognized,
16 ends employers’ practices of punishing striking
17 workers by hiring permanent replacements, and holds
18 corporations accountable with real penalties for
19 illegally retaliating against workers who organize; and
20 WHEREAS, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
21 will help make the United States of America’s economy
22 work for working people and help raise stagnant wages
23 that only increased 9 percent from 1973 to 2013, while
24 productivity increased 74 percent over that same time
25 period; and
26 WHEREAS, previously, wages increased 91 percent from
27 1948 to 1972, while productivity increased 108 percent
28 over that same time period; and
LSB 2831YH (6) 89
-1- cm/rn 1/2
 H.C.R. 11
1 WHEREAS, wage stagnation and runaway inequality of
2 political, social, and economic power have undermined
3 the public’s faith in our democracy; and
4 WHEREAS, through the expansion of collective
5 bargaining under the Protecting the Right to Organize
6 Act, there will be increases in pay and protections
7 for all workers, including women, people of color,
8 immigrants, and the LGBTQ community; and
9 WHEREAS, the United States of America and Iowa must
10 support unions by making the Protecting the Right to
11 Organize Act the law of the land, increasing worker
12 power and rebuilding our economy fairly for all of
13 us; and
14 WHEREAS, the United States House of Representatives
15 passed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act with
16 bipartisan support on March 9, 2021, and it is now
17 before the United States Senate; NOW THEREFORE,
18 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, THE
19 SENATE CONCURRING, That the General Assembly finds that
20 the federal Protecting the Right to Organize Act stands
21 to greatly increase economic opportunity in Iowa and
22 the United States of America and to empower workers
23 through the promotion and expansion of collective
24 bargaining.
LSB 2831YH (6) 89
-2- cm/rn 2/2