Shane Larson
Shane Larson
PRO Act rally
In a June 12 2021vdemonstration which attracted a sizable crowd to downtown Arlington’s Crystal City high-rise office complex, the group emphasized how workers’ rights—and Amazon workers’ and everyone else’s protections and incomes—would benefit if the 50-50 Senate passes the bill. The Democratic-run House approved it in March, almost party-line.
“For 40 years, workers’ wages have declined and income for the elites has increased,” Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation and one of the lineup of union speakers, told the crowd.
“We have so much income inequality and racial inequality that we’ve gone backwards by 100 years.” Passing the PROAct can start to reverse that, she said.,
The demonstration attracted members and speakers from the Communications Workers, the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Diamond’s Northern Virginia Labor Federation, the West Virginia Education Association, and a new group of Uber and Lyft drivers.
The protest was near “the headquarters of global greed,” meaning Amazon, declared Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, which organized the event.
While the wealth of Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has grown to $180 billion and counting, his warehouse employees “work nonstop, get few breaks, have to piss into water bottles” while still toiling “and work in unsafe conditions,” Geevarghese said.
“This is unacceptable,” not just at Amazon, “but at other low-wage companies,” such as Walmart and McDonald’s.
CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson linked curbing Amazon’s greed to protections workers would get from the firm if the PROAct passes. But just getting that vote depends on gaining Warner and Arizona’s two Democratic senators as sponsors. “Even Joe Manchin gets it,” Larson said, referring to the most conservative Democrat’s support of the PROAct.
“Labor law has been destroyed for 80 years,” he added. “And they”—bosses—“benefit.”
“Gig workers don’t have a right to a minimum wage. Gig workers don’t have fundamental protections for health and safety. Gig workers don’t have the right to organize,” said Geevarghese.
And that hurts those gig workers, both he and the Uber-Lyft driver, Daniel Russell, of newly organized D.C.-area Rideshare Workers United, said.
“I do not get paid enough. I do not set my rates. I do not negotiate my own contract,” Russell explained. That counters what Warner believes. “Now I have to work longer hours for less pay…. They can fire me for standing up for my rights, and that is not right. That’s why we need the PROAct.”
Organizing—via politics—also has direct benefits on wages, Don Slaiman, political coordinator for IBEW Local 26, pointed out.
The PROAct, “would eliminate right-to-work states,” along with allowing common-site picketing—a construction union goal—and other changes which make the PROAct “the biggest changes to labor law since the Wagner Act in 1935,” the original, pro-worker, National Labor Relations Act, Slaiman said.
“There’s only one way we can rebalance the power of workers versus corporations, and that’s to pass the PRO Act.”[1]
Progressive Caucus Action Fund Session
Shane Larson was involved in the Progressive Strategy Summit named "Building Power for the Rest of Us" held on October 24-25 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. Shane Larson was listed as one of those "featured" in a panel headlined "From the Shop Floor to the House Floor: Bringing; Lessons from the Picket Lines into Policy Debates" which aimed to "discuss our shared goals of rebalancing our economy to achieve racial, gender, and economic justice."[2]
Verbatim:
- "A hallmark of the progressive movement is a belief that the experiences and needs of working people should animate our policy and politics. This session will bring together organizers, policy makers, labor leaders, advocates, and activists to discuss our shared goals of rebalancing our economy to achieve racial, gender, and economic justice. Bank workers from Santander and Wells Fargo, women working at Walmart, warehouse workers at Amazon, federal contract workers, and striking UAW workers will describe their campaign goals. Special guest members of Congress and national policy leaders will have the opportunity to describe the change they're fighting for in Washington and recent progress building worker power through legislative campaigns. Some of the questions that may be addressed include: How do we achieve better alignment between policy in Washington and people organizing on the front lines? What are the gaps in existing legislation that need to be filled to support working people in a rapidly changing economy? What are the steps we need to take to rein in corporate power, beyond traditional labor legislation? How does the legislation currently on offer build worker power and achieve racial, economic and gender justice?
- Moderator: Dorian Warren, Center for Community Change
- Featuring: Rep. Donald Norcross; Rep. Mark Pocan, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair; Rep. Mark Takano; Randy Bryce; Emily Chatterjee, Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights; Jaya Chatterjee, Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Judy Conti, National Employment Law Project; Andrea Dehlendorf, United for Respect; Vasudha Desikan United for Respect; Jasmine Dixon, United for Respect; Richard Eidlin, American Sustainable Business Council; Joseph Geevarghese, Our Revolution; Terrysa Guerra, United for Respect; Desiree Hoffman, United Automobile Workers; Shane Larson, Communications Workers of America; David Madland, Center for American Progress; Emily Martin, National Women’s Law Center; Michelle McGrain, National Partnership from Women & Families; Guled Mohamad, United for Respect; Josh Nassar, United Automobile Workers; Jackie Parncutt, United Auto Workers, General Motors worker; Dania Rajendra, United for Respect; Larriese Reeves, Santander Bank worker; Alex Ross, Wells Fargo worker; Bill Samuel, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO); Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute
Metro DC DSA Public Facbook group
Members of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, public Facebook group, as of March 12, 2017 included Shane Larson.[3]