Many members of Congress say they believe that once employees vote to unionize, they “must be able to promptly secure a first contract.” Unless, of course, they work for Congress.
The quote above is from the Faster Labor Contracts Act, a bill the House passed in June with 20 Republicans joining 210 Democrats. The union-backed legislation, which has stalled in the Senate, would set a deadline of 90 days after negotiations begin for an employer and union to reach an agreement. Then, federal mediators would get involved, and binding arbitration could force a contract on a business and its workers.
Staffers of Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) announced on Monday that they had secured their first contract after four years of negotiations. Khanna skipped the vote on the contracts bill, but he is a co-sponsor of the PRO Act, which includes similar provisions.
Nicole Waring, the shop steward in Khanna’s office, explained why it took so long. “There’s a lot of back and forth. It takes time to review each passback of the contract [and] redline everything,” she told Politico. “The biggest thing was we wanted to make sure that this contract would be governable, and rather than just make things convenient and take shortcuts, make sure that it was going to be something that we knew would stand the test of time.”
Other staff explained that going slowly was important because union contracts are binding and directly affect workers’ lives. They noted the unique workplace circumstances of a congressional office.
Here’s the thing: Every workplace is unique. Every union contract directly affects workers’ lives. And that’s why the government should never force a contract on people without their consent.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act would erase that basic principle from labor relations law — but only for the private sector. The bill modifies the National Labor Relations Act, which doesn’t apply to government workers. They’d still be able to take as long as they want to negotiate if the bill becomes law.
The bargaining unit for Khanna’s office includes just eight employees. If it can take four years to navigate the complexities in such a tiny workplace, it can certainly take longer than 90 days for businesses with 80, 800, 8,000 or 80,000 employees. Besides, how could federal mediators or arbitrators possibly know the details of each business well enough to impose a good contract?
After celebrating the contract in his office, Khanna said, “We need to be a model for the collective bargaining in our offices that we want to see across our nation.” He’s right. The great majority of congressional offices are not unionized, just like the great majority of American workplaces. And those desiring to take that step must be allowed to negotiate for as long as it takes to secure mutually agreeable terms of employment.
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