Workers for Opportunity is joining a broad coalition to oppose the Faster Labor Contracts Act. This legislation would remove democracy from the workplace and empower government bureaucrats to mandate arbitration for initial contracts between unions and businesses.
A letter signed by the coalition highlights that the proposed legislation would force bargaining into a 90-day window. It explains: “After that, either side can bring in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for 30 days of mediation, after which a panel of arbitrators can impose terms that bind both workers and employer for two years even if workers themselves never voted to approve those terms.”
The concept and most of the language for the legislation originated in a union-sponsored federal bill known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Now it is being advanced as stand-alone legislation by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) is attempting to force Republican leadership in the House to vote on the bill though a procedure called a discharge petition. If 218 congressmen sign the petition, the bill will get a vote. As of this writing, 214 congressmen have signed the petition, including almost all Democrats and Republican Representatives Michael Lawler (R-NY), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Robert Bresnahan (R-PA) and Max Miller (R-OH).
Vincent Vernuccio, a senior fellow with Workers for Opportunity and president of Institute for the American Worker, recently recapped a Senate hearing where he testified. An unwitting union official opposed the Faster Labor Contracts Act idea of forced arbitration. Vernuccio wrote:
[U.S. Senator and Chair of the federal labor committee Sen. Bill] Cassidy explained this policy in real-world terms, saying that it would “take workers out of the process by removing the need to ratify a contract.” He put a finer point on it by saying that if the government mandated arbitration, workers “cannot reject” the resulting agreement, even though it would be binding on them. “What would happen,” he asked, “if workers lost that ability to ratify a contract?”
The union official didn’t mince words: “That would be removing the democracy from the workplace.” Then he doubled down: Such democracy “is the whole point of the union,” he said, because it gives workers “a say.” In a few short words, that union official, a Democratic witness, rejected one of the Democrats’ and labor’s biggest policy priorities.
The union official was correct, even if he did not realize he was opposing an idea that the Democratic senators who invited him there supported. The Faster Labor Contracts Act would remove democracy from the workplace, taking workers out of the voting process and handing bureaucrats even more power. That is why Workers for Opportunity signed on to oppose this harmful federal legislation.
