Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly.It's a problem the labor movement has decried for years: After a successful union election, it takes far too long — an average of 465 days, according to Bloomberg Law — for workers and their employers to reach a first contract.In some cases, it's taking even longer.Neither the Buffalo, N.Y., Starbucks baristas who unionized in late 2021 nor the Staten Island Amazon warehouse workers who unionized in the spring of 2022 have a contract.Now, by a vote of 230 to 193, the House has approved a bill that would force employers to the table, allow federal mediators to get involved if a deal is not reached within 90 days, and — if needed — settle the matter through arbitration shortly thereafter.Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in voting to pass the measure, called the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
"No more stop the steals.You got an election, you can get a contract," said New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross, a union electrician and the bill's sponsor, at a press conference last fall.
Norcross says the measure would be the most significant new protection for workers since before World War II, an assertion echoed by labor leaders."This is one of the most consequential labor bills to come before Congress in generations," said Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien in a statement earlier this year."It has the potential to hold Corporate America accountable for endlessly dragging out negotiations and denying workers the first union contracts they deserve."Republicans opposed to the bill described it as government overreach, something that would be bad for employers, employees and the economy.The bill reached the House floor via a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition — the same tactic used to force a House vote on the release of the Epstein files.
Democrats have increasingly turned to discharge petitions, which require a simple majority, to circumvent House Speaker Mike Johnson.Seven Republicans ...