Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act

Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act Introduced

Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act (PSFNA) would force states to allow unionization of taxpayer-funded employees.

Communications Workers of America and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Connection

From a Communications Workers of America press release dated November 23, 2024 titled "Lori Chavez-DeRemer Must Hold the Line for Working People":

"President-elect Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor, Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has shown that she understands the importance of labor union membership and the right to collectively bargain by co-sponsoring the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO) and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.

This sets her apart from Trump’s other nominees and his close advisor Elon Musk. Many of those nominees helped draft Project 2025, a handbook for the second Trump Administration, which proposes to allow management-run fake unions, repeal of overtime pay and minimum wage laws, elimination of health and safety standards, and abolishing the rights of public sector workers to join unions. Musk has called for the wholesale elimination of federal regulations, including those that protect workers from abuse, exploitation and harm.

Promoting the welfare and rights of working and retired Americans is the central purpose of the U.S. Department of Labor. The two most recent Labor Secretaries, Marty Walsh and Julie Su, have done an outstanding job advancing that mission. We are counting on Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to hold the line for working people and reject attempts by anti-worker extremists in the Trump Administration and Congress to enact Project 2025 and endanger workers’ livelihoods and lives.

Reintroduced in Congress

From a Communications Workers of America press release dated May 23, 2024:

"While the right to organize a union is protected under federal law for private sector workers, state and local public sector workers have no such protections at the federal level. Last week, Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation to remedy this problem. U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) introduced the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act (PSFNA), intended to protect workers looking to create or join a union.

The PSFNA would guarantee workers the right to join a union, engage in collective bargaining, and sue in court to enforce their labor rights. This legislation, if passed, would also allow workers to access dispute resolution mechanisms such as mediation or arbitration.

As of 2022, according to a press release from Senator Hirono, there were over 19 million public workers across the U.S.

Without union representation, public sector workers have less power to fight corporations and the politicians who do their bidding when they push to privatize and eliminate public services. This bill will improve public services by enforcing standards for worker safety, pay, and benefits, resulting in improved worker retention, lower training costs, and better communication between workers and their employers.

“The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act will help ensure every public employee has their voice heard in the workplace, protecting their rights to organize for fair wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said Senator Hirono in a press release. “I’m proud to lead this legislation to preserve and strengthen the right to unionize for public sector workers who teach our children, protect our safety, and keep our communities moving forward.”

National Education Association Reference and Lori Chavez-DeRemer Connection

On November 22, 2024, the National Education Association President Becky Pringle released the following statement reacting to the selection of Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary:

"National Education Association President Becky Pringle released the following statement reacting to the selection of Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Labor Secretary:

“Across America, most of us want the same things – strong public schools to help every student grow into their full brilliance and good jobs where workers earn living wages to provide for their families.

“During her time in Congress, Lori Chavez-DeRemer voted against gutting the Department of Education, against school vouchers, and against cuts to education funding. She cosponsored the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, the PRO Act, and other pro-student, pro-public school, pro-worker legislation.

“This record stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s anti-worker, anti-union record, and his extreme Project 2025 agenda that would gut workplace protections, make it harder for workers to unionize, and diminish the voice of working people.

“During his first term, Trump appointed anti-worker, anti-union National Labor Relations Board members. Now he is threatening to take the unprecedented action of removing current pro-worker NLRB members in the middle of their term, replacing them with his corporate friends. And he is promising to appoint judges and justices who are hostile to workers and unions.

“Educators and working families across the nation will be watching Lori Chavez-DeRemer as she moves through the confirmation process and hope to hear a pledge from her to continue to stand up for workers and students as her record suggests, not blind loyalty to the Project 2025 agenda.”

Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act Introduced

From an AFSCME press release dated October 26, 2021:

The Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act was introduced today in the House of Representatives by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.). The bill, which currently has 144 cosponsors, would set a minimum nationwide standard of collective bargaining rights that states must provide. It would empower workers to join together for a voice on the job not only to improve working conditions but to improve the communities in which they work.

During a press conference today announcing the bill’s introduction, AFSCME President Lee Saunders highlighted the sacrifices that public service workers have made over the past two years during the pandemic.

“Health care workers, school employees, corrections officers, sanitation workers, behavioral health professionals and many more – they have stood fearlessly on the front lines to protect their neighbors from this pandemic,” Saunders said. “For all their service and sacrifice, they deserve the freedom to negotiate – to sit down with management, discuss terms of employment and hammer out a fair contract.”

The Freedom to Negotiate Act will blunt a decades-long effort by anti-worker politicians and their wealthy corporate donors to deny workers the chance to join strong unions. Specifically, the law will give public service workers the freedom to:

• Join together in a union selected by a majority of employees; 
• Collectively bargain over wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment; 
• Resolve disputes with their employers through an unbiased process;
• Use voluntary payroll deduction for union dues; 
• Engage in concerted activities related to collective bargaining and mutual aid; 
• Have their union be free from requirements to hold rigged recertification elections; and
• File suit in court to enforce their labor rights.    
• Currently, nearly half the states don’t have laws that provide for meaningful collective bargaining in the public sector. The Freedom to Negotiate Act would allow public service workers across the country to join together in a union to win respect and fair treatment on the job. 

In a joint release issued by AFT, NEA and SEIU, President Saunders added, “Our communities are safer, healthier and stronger when public service workers…have the freedom to join a union and speak up together for their communities.”

The benefits that unions provide are broad and powerful. We know, for example, that union members earn higher wages and are more likely than nonunion members to have employer-provided health care and other benefits, like paid sick and family leave. Particularly for women and workers of color, belonging to a union closes income and wealth gaps. For those who work in the public sector, belonging to a union means pay more in line with private sector counterparts. But unions benefit not only those who belong to them, but even those who aren’t members. The COVID-19 crisis made even clearer that unions are also a crucial tool for on-the-job safety.

Finally, there’s strong support for the Freedom to Negotiate Act. Seventy percent of Americans support the law. And with public support for unions at its highest since 1965 — 68% — it’s time for Congress to pass the PSFNA.