Providing for Consideration of H.R. Faster Labor Contracts Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the committee for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Faster Labor Contracts Act.

Republicans should always be proworker, and we are always proworker; but being proworker does not mean handing more power to Washington, and it certainly does not mean taking decisions away from the workers themselves.

Yet, that is exactly what this bill does.

For nearly 90 years, Federal labor policy has been guided by a simple principle: workers and employers should determine the terms of employment through voluntary, good-faith bargaining.

That framework, established under the National Labor Relations Act, has governed labor relations for generations.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act turns that principle on its head. If negotiations fail to conclude within a federally prescribed timeline, government-appointed arbitrators are empowered to impose wages, benefits, schedules, and workplace rules for years to come. In other words, this bill replaces negotiation with compulsion and substitutes private agreements with Federal mandates. Most concerning, workers themselves may be bound by contracts they never approved.

Under the FLCA, employees would lose one of the most fundamental rights they have today: the ability to vote on the terms and conditions governing their own employment.

This is not proworker. It is progovernment, and Congress should not be in the business of silencing workers or stripping them of their voice.

Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to this bill.

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