Anthony Ngo, an AFSCME Local 2620 member, travels a long way to and from work but wouldn’t change it. He works at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, California, where he provides psychological counseling and group therapy to inmates. “It’s a great job—great pay and benefits, and I love the staff. And my union helps us out a lot,” said Ngo.

As President Biden addressed a joint session of Congress recently, he highlighted a fundamental truth about his American Jobs Plan.

For once, our leaders aren’t pushing another tax break for the elite, bailing out the ultra-wealthy or preaching the false gospel of trickle-down economics. As the president put it, this is “a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself.”

The PRO Act is about as important a piece of labor legislation as we’ve seen in some time. It holds the potential to open the door for workers and organizers to step up and reverse 40 years of losses for organized labor. The law, whose initials stand for Protecting the Right to Organize, aims to do just that: protect workers from being harassed or fired if they try to organize a union or if they try to help their already existing union become more active in their workplace. This is seen as the number one legislative priority for organized labor.