WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) joined the Striking and Locked Out Workers Healthcare Protection Act, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) to protect workers’ health care benefits and prevent retaliatory employers from using their power to cancel or alter health insurance for workers exercising their right to strike.

“Cutting off health insurance is not some negotiating tactic for companies to bully striking workers into accepting a bad deal. It’s retaliation. I’m proud to stand with workers and support a bill that would make sure their health and their families’ health are never put at risk when fighting for better pay and working conditions,” said Murphy.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) established the right to strike as a protected activity, and employees cannot be fired for exercising that right. However, employers can, and often do, threaten to cut workers’ health care as a tactic to end strikes and intimidate workers. In many cases, this forces workers to decide whether they should exercise their right to strike or accept poor wages or working conditions in order to protect their health care for themselves and their families. 

This legislation would create a separate unfair labor practice category for when employers cut or alter workers’ health insurance while they are on strike or locked out, and violators would be subject to increasing levels of civil penalties. Creating a new unfair labor practice would allow workers to bring cases with the NLRB when employers cancel or change their health coverage while they are on strike.

In addition to Murphy, Gallego, and Baldwin, the bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

The legislation is supported by the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Teamsters, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), Communications Workers of America (CWA), United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), International Association of Iron Workers (IW), American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA), Transport Workers Union (TWU), Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, National Education Association (NEA) International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART), Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), and NewsGuild-CWA.

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