I have heard that loyalty to your employer is a dying reality: Employees today jump from job to job for better pay and benefits and to “climb the ladder.” If true, the reverse of that would also result, with employers being less loyal to their workforce, as companies assume employees are there for a short term and invest in constantly hiring new employees instead of developing the employees they have.
But I’ve spent almost 50 years with one company, and many of my coworkers have also been here for 30- or 40-plus years, so I see a different reality.
We are a nonunion manufacturer in the steel industry, which is highly unusual. Our founder, my father, grew up in the steel industry and remembered when unions were needed to change the relationship between employers and employees. When he started Webco Industries, he vowed to provide a workplace where a union was never needed, a place where people are valued and respected and given opportunities to grow and develop.
Most of our executive team have been here more than 25 years and “grew up” in the company. Most of our operations management and sales teams grew up in their divisions. We care about offering opportunities for a successful and rewarding career, but also about our employees’ physical, mental, emotional, and financial health.
And we’re not alone. While every company has their own approach on how to accomplish what I’ve just described, most companies I encounter today are trying to accomplish the same thing. And the diversity of approaches is usually a good thing: Different people need different things, and different companies are able to offer different things.
A newer company that’s struggling to survive might offer rapid career growth with lower benefit levels. A more established company might offer slower career growth with a more robust benefits package. As businesses across the spectrum prosper, they create opportunities for their employees, and thus a large percentage of the population benefits—while companies and workers have the freedom to choose what works for them.
Unfortunately, some members of Congress are pushing a bill called the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. If passed, it would disrupt these effective and very beneficial relationships between employees and employers. In addition, President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan (the American Jobs Plan) also has major provisions from this bill buried in the package, including pushing collective bargaining and requiring that many new and existing jobs become union jobs. (These measures were not included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill announced this week, but the Biden administration and a sizable group in Congress remain eager to pass them.)
Prosperity naturally gives people hope and opportunity for a better future—we don’t need rules and regulations to make it happen. That’s why PRO Act policies, whether in the PRO Act or in the President’s infrastructure bill, are so alarming.
Disguised as a measure to help protect workers’ rights, the PRO Act actually strips many rights from workers in exchange for forced unionization. Whether employees want to join a union or not, they would be forced to pay union costs and live with what the union decides. Additionally, today, employees cast confidential ballots in votes about whether to unionize, which is necessary because of the threats and harassment they sometimes face from the union and union organizers. Under this law, the secret ballot goes away, and organizers could coerce employees to voice their support through a nonconfidential and unsecure process called “card check.”
The world is dynamic, and employers and employees need the flexibility to change our relationship over time to whatever works best for both parties. The PRO Act will shackle our flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
Company relationships with contractors would also change. Webco, like most companies, sometimes engages contractors and works with other companies who employ contractors (such as truck drivers who ship our products around the country). The PRO Act would force companies to view these contractors as full-time employees, entitled to the same benefits (and union rules) as other full-time employees. In some cases, the increased costs would cause the company to terminate the relationship with the contractor. In other cases, if the contractor became a full-time employee, they would lose the work flexibility they valued.
Today, most employers value their employees. We don’t need excessive rules from Washington, D.C., constraining our relationship. We must leave it up to each employee and employer to determine their ideal working relationship. We have enough rules and laws in place to make the employee-employer relationship a thriving one.
Webco Industries has around 1,100 workers in five states. We are no strangers to the variety of workers’ rights laws around the country, and we’ve gladly embraced the variety of situations to work out what is best between us and our employees directly. Simply put, we’ve been doing it for more than 50 years without relying on unions or overbearing laws from Congress. We certainly don’t need the PRO Act or an infrastructure bill with hidden PRO Act provisions to mess that up—not for our workers, not for our business, and not for the ripple effects the bill would have across a large portion of working America.
Dana Weber is the chief executive officer of Webco Industries.
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