More workers engaged in collective action last year than in any other year in the past three decades. In 2018, 485,000 people participated in work stoppages — from teachers to hotel workers to workers in the telecommunications industry and more.

In 2019, working people’s appetite for collective action shows no signs of slowing down. And they’re getting results.

In April, workers at Stop & Shop ended the largest retail strike in nearly two decades, when their employer finally agreed to back off of proposed cuts to their paychecks and pensions. That same month, over 10,000 nurses in New York state threatened to strike for better nurse-to-patient ratios and won. Major teacher strikes and work actions have drawn attention from lawmakers and school boards across the country to the chronic underinvestment in our nation’s schools.

Public support for unionization is at a 15-year high and more than half of non-union workers would vote to join a union if they could. But as the courts, regulators, lawmakers, and employers continue an all-out assault on union organizing, the share of the U.S. workforce that is unionized remains low, at less than 11 percent.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, when workers try to organize unions, 75 percent of employers hire union-busting consultants, 47 percent threaten to cut employee pay or benefits, 57 percent threaten to shut down, and 90 percent hold mandatory “captive audience” meetings to propagate anti-union messages.

Recently introduced legislation aims to protect workers against such intimidation tactics and strengthen their bargaining power. The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act would force employers to the bargaining table if the union has the support of a majority of employees and the employer interferes with the union election. If the National Labor Relations Board believes a worker has been illegally terminated for engaging in union activity, the PRO Act would require the company to reinstate the worker while the case is pending.

Under current law, bargaining for a first contract can drag on for years. To address this, the Act establishes a process for mediation and if necessary, binding arbitration, to reach a first contract.