Unlock American Prosperity by Passing the Faster Labor Contracts Act

Corporate elites have had it their way for long enough. This legislation will put the power back in the hands of workers.

By Sean M. O’Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters

For hardworking Americans, the game is rigged. You can vote to secure union representation, you can reach the bargaining table, and you can press your boss for higher wages, guaranteed benefits, and a secure retirement. But in today’s America, employers are afforded every opportunity under the law to drag out those negotiations, orchestrate a corporate campaign to decertify your union, and intimidate you during mandatory meetings to abandon your struggle for a better way of life.

Now, a bipartisan bill before Congress—the Faster Labor Contracts Act—strives to dismantle this broken system and put American workers first in our pursuit of economic prosperity. And it needs to pass.

I’m a fourth-generation union member. I have the privilege of serving as the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, home to 1.3 million Americans working essential jobs in more industries than any other labor union. The union way is the only way I’ve ever known. And I know this: being a Teamster is about more than commanding respect on the job. It’s about securing a life that corporate America wants you to believe is no longer possible.

In the Teamsters, our members are empowered to build families, receiving the wages and benefits needed to support their children and partners. As a Teamster—whether you’re delivering UPS packages, picking up garbage, or stocking shelves at the grocery store—you have a stake in sustaining a strong community. You know what it means to buy a home, to invest in the future, to pay taxes and dues, and to live with the dignity of knowing you can provide for your loved ones.

Shamefully, that dream escapes so many Americans today. But we all know, deep in our hearts, that such a life should still be available to every working person in this country. At its core, the Faster Labor Contracts Act is about restoring that reality.

The bill was introduced in the Senate by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), and in the House by Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Pete Stauber (R-MN). It has already garnered support from dozens of senators and representatives on both sides of the aisle. The Teamsters Union is confident that if Congress stands up and supports the Faster Labor Contracts Act on behalf of America’s working families, President Donald Trump will sign this critical bill into law. Such action would mark the most significant piece of labor legislation enacted in this country in more than 60 years.

The reason the Faster Labor Contracts Act could be so successful—and so transformative for the American workforce—is because of how simple and straightforward it is. This is not a political football. This is not a 2,000-page omnibus bill to be passed in the dead of night. This is an increasingly rare example where legislators of all stripes put forward easily digestible reforms that can immediately and sustainably improve the lives of their constituents.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act would require employers to start negotiating a labor agreement within ten days of workers voting to unionize. If both sides cannot reach a deal after 90 days, bargaining proceeds to mediation. If no contract settlement is reached after 30 days of mediation, negotiations move to binding arbitration before an independent federal arbitrator. The bill mandates the end result must produce a fair first contract between workers and their employer.

The bill’s remedies to advance the lives of working people—and to safeguard the rights and shared prosperity of employers—are commonsense. When passed, this legislation will change the game for American workers by unrigging a system now heavily bent to favor corporations. This creates a path for workers to ratify strong contracts that provide family-sustaining wages and benefits. It would establish for employers a more committed, satisfied, and reliable workforce, one made up of workers who know they’re showing up every day to a job that respects and rewards their labor.

The provisions of the Faster Labor Contracts Act are popular with Americans of all ages, classes, and political parties, as detailed in a recent American Compass survey.

The bill’s Senate cosponsors include Gary Peters (D-MI), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). It is expected to gain even wider support in the House. At a fractured time in American history, when so much of any legislation is viewed only through a staunchly partisan lens, the Faster Labor Contracts Act has a real chance to bridge divides for the betterment of the American worker. How could any of us oppose such an opportunity?

For organized labor, the bill would resolve one of the biggest problems we encounter on the ground when speaking with workers—employers, and certainly the largest among them in the U.S., should not be allowed to delay contract negotiations in perpetuity.

Under our current, toothless labor laws, employers are indeed required to bargain in good faith after workers vote to unionize. But companies, and even massive corporations, are not given a deadline to start or finish negotiations. That is a depressing reality, and it directly accounts for why corporate profits have soared to unprecedented highs while hardworking American families have fallen so far behind. Employers are allowed to abuse this loophole to no end, delaying bargaining indefinitely and refusing to discuss issues of substance. American workers cannot continue to suffer such legal injustice. The Faster Labor Contracts Act would finally and fully right this wrong.

In the Teamsters, we see such injustice every day. At Corewell Health—a “nonprofit” hospital network in Michigan—10,000 nurses organized with our union last year because they were mistreated, overworked, and underpaid. The hospital paid union-busting firms nearly $2 million to try to stop their campaign. It didn’t work. The nurses voted overwhelmingly to become Teamsters. It was one of the largest American union elections in decades.

Corewell has since tried to deny these nurses their right to a contract. It took the hospital system until late June—seven months after the union election—to even come to the table and negotiate for the first time. During the few bargaining sessions they’ve attended since, Corewell management has slow-walked every issue and avoided speaking about the concerns that drove the nurses to become Teamsters in the first place.

This is but one of countless examples of disrupt-and-delay tactics that employers are allowed to get away with under current federal labor laws. This broken system cannot remain in place. Corporate interests do not supersede the advancement and prosperity of the country itself, which we know is fueled and renewed only by the grit and tenacity of the American worker. We need to find a new middle ground. We need compromise. And we need common sense. We can find it all in the Faster Labor Contracts Act.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress can clean up this mess. Corporate elites have had it their way for long enough. For decades, their greed uprooted the way of life that made America the greatest country on earth. But it’s not too late to fix it, to chart a new course, and to get the Land of Opportunity back on track. Let’s put the power back in the hands of ordinary, everyday, committed American workers. They are the only ones who hold the keys to the next great generation of American recovery and dominance. Pass this bill and let them unlock it.