The U.S. House is still run by Republicans, and for once it shows. The welcome turn came last week when the House passed the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which guarantees binding arbitration when companies refuse to reach a collective-bargaining agreement with newly certified unions.
The bill reached the floor because seven Republicans put working people ahead of loyalty to a leadership that had locked it in a drawer. They signed a discharge petition to force a vote, and it passed 230 to 193, with every Democrat and 20 Republicans backing American workers.
The bill wrenches the balance of power back from corporate suites and puts it in the hands of workers, where it belongs. If an employer digs in and refuses to make a reasonable offer, an arbitrator steps in—not to punish the company, but to protect workers from the time-honored corporate tactic of running out the clock. Companies can no longer stonewall while newly organized workers go without a contract; no more stringing workers along while management bargains in bad faith. Arbitrators use industry standards in their judgments—the standard a healthy firm meets, not the floor a reluctant employer would prefer to set—which ensures companies cannot undercut the wages and conditions their competitors already honor. That means management has every reason to negotiate seriously, and workers have the power that comes from standing together through the union they elected to speak for them.
We hope Republicans know exactly what they’ve voted for—and not merely on wages or pensions. This is about the dignity of being able to bargain for healthcare that covers the full range of medical needs. Unions, representing millions of working Americans, have long fought for comprehensive healthcare coverage, including reproductive care, abortion, and gender-affirming care. That is the standard decent employers already meet, and that is precisely what collective bargaining can deliver. The UAW’s bargaining unit at the University of California, for example, has made gender-affirming care, birth control, and abortion coverage explicit priorities in its contract demands. This is not a radical gesture; it is the floor of what dignified work requires.
Many employers have tried to deny those provisions on religious grounds. A corporation’s “religious liberty” is a legal fiction; what’s real is the worker who needs care and the contract that says she gets it. They may worry that GOP Reps. Chris Smith (N.J.), Riley Moore (W.Va.), Max Miller (Ohio), Derrick Van Orden (Wis.) and others are supporting legislation that extends those protections to more companies and workers. We commend them—including Mr. Smith, who co-chairs the Congressional pro-life caucus—for still choosing workers over corporate interests. They understood that letting workers negotiate their own benefits is fully consistent with any sincere commitment to life. The bill does not compel anyone to have an abortion. It says that when a union and an employer freely agree to a health plan covering comprehensive reproductive care, the law will no longer tolerate an employer unilaterally gutting that coverage.
The labor movement couldn’t pass the FLCA as part of the Pro Act in the Biden years. The Pro Act died in the Senate. The FLCA found its path because working families demanded it. The Senate should pass it. Republicans think they’re burnishing their populist credentials, and for once they’re right—they’re finally delivering for the people who break their backs to keep this country running, not just the donor class that bankrolls their campaigns. Any senator who kills this bill will be the one selling out the people who sent them to Washington.
