Published
October 27, 2025
Earlier this year, Senator Josh Hawley introduced the ill-conceived Faster Labor Contracts Act. A companion bill in the House of Representatives was introduced in late September. The legislation might more aptly be the Forced Labor Contracts Act given its antidemocratic nature
The bill requires employers to start bargaining within 10 days of a vote in favor of union representation at a workplace. If a first contract cannot be negotiated within 90 days, the bill would require mediation for 30 days, after which a binding arbitration process would impose a contract on the employer and the union. In such a circumstance, the rank-and-file workers would get no say over the terms of the contract.
That latter part is what proponents of the Faster Labor Contracts Act want to keep quiet—after all, how is it “pro-worker” to impose terms on the very workers in question without their vote?
That point came up in questioning during an October 22 Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing titled “Labor Law Reform Part 2: New Solutions for Finding a Pro-Worker Way Forward.”
Citing the ongoing negotiations between the Machinists Union (IAM) and Boeing, HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy asked one witness, an IAM shop steward, “As I understand, arbitration could take workers out of the process by removing the need to ratify a contract. Put differently, if the leadership came up with a contract [and] arbitration said ‘yup, this is it’ then the members could not reject it…. What would happen if the IAM workers lost the ability to ratify a contract?”
In response, the IAM official said, “It is my understanding that in our constitution our members get to vote on the contract, period.” Senator Cassidy then noted that “if you have arbitration and it’s agreed upon then that becomes the contract at which point the workers would not have the ability to reject it.”
The IAM official then said, “If that’s the case then that would be removing democracy in the workplace, which is the whole point of a union, giving workers a say”—not exactly a ringing endorsement of Sen. Hawley’s forced arbitration bill.
Forced arbitration is hostile to both workers and employers. It has the practical effect of stripping employers of their right to negotiate complex issues while at the same time “removing democracy” for workers, which “is the whole point of a union.” Backers of the Faster Labor Contracts Act should listen to the wisdom of the IAM.
About the author
Sean P. Redmond
Sean P. Redmond is Vice President, Labor Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
