The Architecture Lobby supports the Protect the Right to Organize Act of 2021 also known as the PRO Act (H.R.842). T-A-L believes the right to organize is a fundamental pillar of democracy and an essential right of workers. If passed, the PRO Act would be the most significant pro-labor legislation since the New Deal. We call on all architectural workers – architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, interior designers, administrative staff, academics, interns, teachers – to join us in supporting the PRO Act.
Architecture is a profession in which workers, like all workers under capitalism, are precarious and routinely exploited by employers because of that precarity. Architectural workers are routinely denied benefits, overtime pay, and expanded sick leave.
Architectural workers should have the right to hold employers accountable for all forms of exploitation, including but not limited to ill-treatment, harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, gender or sexuality.
Architectural workers are routinely misclassified as unprotected independent contractors in order to perpetuate practices of under- and uncompensated work. Architectural workers on visas are especially precarious, and deserve protections from employers who routinely undermine the employment status of immigrants.
The profession of architecture must be changed to remove all layers of worker exploitation. Winning unions within the profession of architecture is a necessary step toward this goal, and passing the PRO Act is a necessary measure to facilitate the winning of unions, especially in so-called “right-to-work” states. Further, passing the PRO Act is a necessary step towards winning a Green New Deal, which is a principal working interest of the Lobby.
Passing the PRO Act is an act of meaningful solidarity with our comrades in the building trades who, in addition to routine wage exploitation, often face unsafe and life-threatening working conditions.
The members of The Architecture Lobby fully and unequivocally supports passage of the PRO Act. The Architecture Lobby commits to joining the efforts of the Democratic Socialists of America, The Sunrise Movement, and numerous unions who are continuing to build a mass movement of workers for the passage of the PRO Act.
If you are an architectural worker and would like to be a part of this fight, we ask that you join us in support.
