Time to protect worker autonomy 

The last time U.S. labor laws were significantly changed was 1947, the same year actor Gregory Peck won a Golden Globe for his performance in “The Yearling.”   

Peck was barely in his 30s when he won that award and he lived to the ripe age of 87 when he died—which was nearly 20 years ago. Yet American employees still operate under many labor laws put in place when Peck was a young man. It’s time for change; Congress needs to modernize the law to support workers’ rights and autonomy through passage of the Employee Rights Act (ERA).  

The ERA would ensure that workers have five basic, common-sense protections.   

First, it would give employees the right to a secret ballot when determining whether or not to form a union. Employees shouldn’t be coerced or threatened into making a decision. They deserve the privacy of a secret ballot, exactly the same way Americans vote for their representation in government.   

The ERA would also require unions to receive permission from members of the union to use dues for purposes other than collective bargaining—put simply, unions could not use a workers’ dues to support politicians and causes that the worker does not support.  

Third, it would limit the amount of employee personal information a union receives during an organizing drive.  

Next, the ERA provides clarity on the joint-employer standard, ensuring Americans will still have the opportunity to start their own business as a franchisee. This is especially prescient as labor unions are attempting to eliminate the franchise model by expanding liability to entities not under a company’s direct control. In practice, this means fewer people will be able to open franchises, and current franchisees would become corporate middle managers rather than local entrepreneurs. 

Finally, the ERA updates current law to keep the definition of an “employee” in line with the common-law definition used by several state statutes and recent Supreme Court rulings.   

All five of these key provisions have strong public support — empowering employees isn’t a partisan idea, it’s just good business!  

As many Americans attempt to rebuild their lives and livelihoods from the economic devastation of government-mandated COVID lockdowns, rampant inflation continues to stifle growth. Unnecessary and onerous government regulations benefit unions at the expense of workers, making the current economic challenges even harder for working families and small businesses. 

We must modernize our laws to advance flexible work and eliminate a very dated and rigid system that fails to protect the interest of workers. Increased freedom and individual opportunity are the key to the American Dream and a successful workforce.  

We don’t have to search far to find an example of what happens when you eliminate those freedoms from workers. In California, the regulations have spiraled out of control, empowering unions to an unbelievable extent. As a result, California has lost hundreds of thousands of residents to states with more business- and worker-friendly environments. These families are voting with their feet and fleeing in droves as a direct result of California’s limited opportunity.  

The world has changed a lot since 1947. In the decades since, we’ve seen the invention of the credit card, the personal computer, the cell phone, and the internet — just to name a few. It’s time our federal labor laws caught up.   

Kevin Hern represents Oklahoma’s 1st District. John Tidwell is Americans for Prosperity Oklahoma state director.