House approves labor-friendly bill with support from 20 Republicans
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In this election year, something surprising has happened in Congress. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved legislation in favor of unions. Some Republicans joined Democrats to approve it. Many people who vote to form a union discover that it takes them a very long time to get a contract, and this legislation would force employers to negotiate and get the government involved if a deal is not reached within 90 days. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: The bill is called the Faster Labor Contracts Act, and it would do just that - speed up the time it takes newly unionized workers to get a contract, which is the whole point of unionizing. The average time is 465 days, according to Bloomberg Law, but sometimes it's way longer. Though Starbucks baristas and Amazon warehouse workers who unionized more than four years ago - they still don't have contracts. New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross sponsored the bill. He's a union electrician.
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DONALD NORCROSS: So I'm proud to rise in support of what would be the most impactful protection for workers' rights in nearly a hundred years.
HSU: His bill seeks to give companies a deadline. It requires employers to start contract negotiations within 10 days of a union election. And if no deal is reached after 90 days, either side can call in federal mediators. If another 30 days pass with no deal, a panel of three arbitrators would settle the matter, taking into consideration things like the employer's financial health and the workers' cost of living. Gregory Hoff says those strict time limits on negotiations are a problem. He's general counsel for an association representing chief human resource officers at Fortune 500 companies.
GREGORY HOFF: Sometimes these things do take time, as frustrating as that is.
HSU: Union contracts can be hundreds of pages long, he says, and they may be in place for years.
HOFF: So it's very, very important to get these things right the first time. It's not their fault, but it's unreasonable to expect that the government arbitrator would have a better idea of what's going on on the ground than people who actually work there, along with their union representatives, along with the employer.
HSU: Norcross got this bill to the House floor through a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition. In the end, 20 Republicans joined Democrats in approving it. Now it's on to the Senate, where, so far, it has the support of three Republicans. It needs 60 votes to pass.
Andrea Hsu, NPR News.
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