A candidate from California wants to push for reform of U.S. labor laws
San Diego City Councilmember Marnie von Wilpert, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives from California, said that one of her main priorities in Congress will be to pass federal labor law reform. She helped draft the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), according to The Guardian World.
Von Wilpert worked as an attorney at the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 2014 to 2017. She said she witnessed workers facing labor rights violations waiting years for their cases to be heard. The candidate noted that cases involving dismissals for union activity or the overturning of election results regarding union representation could take three to four years to be resolved.
The PRO Act was drafted based on proposals from a group of labor law attorneys who discussed amendments to the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The bill provides for the modernization of labor laws, stronger protections for workers who are organizing, and the ability for the NLRB to impose monetary penalties for labor law violations and hold corporate executives accountable.
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Von Wilpert worked on the bill alongside Democratic Congressman Bobby Scott and Senator Patty Murray. The bill has been introduced in Congress every year since 2019. In 2021, it was approved by the House of Representatives, but it has yet to make progress in the Senate.
In November, von Wilpert will run for a seat in the House of Representatives currently held by Republican Darrell Issa. Her opponent will be San Diego County Board of Supervisors member Jim Desmond, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump. Von Wilpert stated that Desmond has opposed a number of initiatives supporting workers, including raising the minimum wage for workers performing county contracts. Desmond’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment from The Guardian.
