Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has announced its strong support for the Employee Rights Act, introduced on Wednesday, 19 April 2023, in the 118th US Congress by Senator Tim Scott, Republican-South Carolina, and Rep. Rick Allen, Republican-Georgia.
With a primary objective to provide essential protections for workers’ rights, choices and freedoms, the ERA stands in stark contrast with the so-called Protecting the Right to Organise Act, which would drastically restructure America’s labour laws, damage the economy, cost millions of American jobs, threaten vital supply chains and greatly diminish opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
“In the face of an increasingly hostile regulatory environment for small businesses, the ERA is critical legislation that provides much-needed protection and clarity for our nation’s job creators and workforce,” said Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of legislative & political affairs. “It is essential that Congress acts to strengthen the rights, flexibility and privacy protections of workers, as laid out in the ERA because the Biden administration—through the National Labor Relations Board and U.S. Department of Labor—is seeking to implement provisions of thePRO Act through regulatory action.”
ABC is supportive of the ERA provisions, such as:
- Ensuring the use of secret ballots in union elections;
- Stimulating local businesses and entrepreneurship opportunities;
- Defending worker choice and independent contractors;
- Protecting workers from unwanted political exploitation; and
- Safeguarding employee privacy.
On 19 April, ABC sent aletter of support to representatives and senators, urging them to co-sponsor the ERA. The ABC-led Coalition for a Democratic Workplace also wrote aletter of support and adiverse coalition of associations and organisations.
