WASHINGTON-Call this a right-wing “wish list” of changes, but Senate Labor Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., unveiled a GOP package of labor law “reforms” that is a corporate lobbyist’s dream-and the opposite of labor’s Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. The batch of measures Cassidy stitched together omits the one bill with bipartisan backing, to mandate arbitration when workers and bosses can’t reach first contracts within a set time. That measure, by Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Cory Booker, D-N. J., draws Teamsters support. “Greedy corporations will stop at nothing to keep workers from getting a fair first contract,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said when the duo unveiled their Faster Contracts Act earlier this year. “Their playbook is simple: Stall, delay, and drag out negotiations to deny workers from securing the wages and conditions they deserve. Teamsters are proud to support” the bill. O’Brien called it “real reform that forces employers to bargain in good faith and holds them accountable when they don’t.” What did make it into Cassidy’s package of labor law “reforms” pleased anti-worker ideologues: No card check recognition. And unions would win secret-ballot elections by majority votes only when at least two-thirds of the eligible voters cast ballots. Mandate the National Labor Relations Board follow court precedents-and only court precedents-in ruling on cases. That effectively neutralizes the board’s power to set rules for relations between workers and bosses. Cassidy claims following only the courts would prevent the swings the NLRB makes whenever partisan control switches. Left unsaid: Right now, lower federal court judges are almost evenly split numerically by party, but the right-wing judges are top-heavy in “red” states, notably Texas and Louisiana, so challengers to NLRB rules, or any pro-worker rules, hit those courts. The Supreme Court, with six Republican-named justices out of nine total, is so heavily tilted that then-AFL-CIO General Counsel Craig Becker said at the start of the Biden administration four years ago that workers’ lawyers automatically assume they’ll lose there. Donald Trump named three of the six. Make it easier for dissident workers to decertify unions. Right now, after the union wins an election and bargaining-after management delays and appeals-actually starts, union foes have to wait a year before they can file “decert” petitions. Bosses often encourage the decertifications, even though openly campaigning for them is illegal. Now, there are bars to decertification. Advocates must collect cards from a minimum of 30% of bargaining unit members, and unions have the right to challenge signatures. Cassidy’s bill removes most bars, cheering the company-funded National Right to Work Committee, the corporations’ leading foe of unions. The bill also starts the clock for filing decertification not when bargaining begins, but when-often long before that-the union wins its recognition vote. Writing two NLRB rulings about union political spending, and the right to object to it, into federal law. The rulings now mandate unions must publish notices, at least yearly, that workers whom union contracts cover have the right to opt out of spending for lobbying and similar activities, with the union forced to refund that pro-rated share of their dues. Cassidy and his colleagues say that’s not enough. They want the notices written into law and to be in big bold type-and to cover any political spending, including spending of voluntarily-donated dollars to union campaign finance committees. Right-wingers told the Senate panel that political spending, including lobbying, advocacy and candidate spending, should be “opt in,” not “opt out.” Force unions to provide evidence of unfair labor practices-the legal name for labor law-breaking-when they file ULP allegations. The GOP says there are too many frivolous claims. Ban unions from unionizing or hiring undocumented people, whom the GOP calls “illegal immigrants.” If the union signs them, it’s a ULP. The bill is silent, however, on a Supreme Court ruling years ago that says unions certified to represent workers at a workplace must represent all workers there, including the undocumented, who then benefit from pro-worker rulings, too. Make it harder for picketing workers to charge, and the NLRB to prove, boss harassment on picket lines. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who plans to run for governor, authored that idea. During a long Mine Workers strike against an Alabama coal company, bosses-or their rank-and-file allies-went far beyond “harassment.” They tried to run several picketers down. One brainstorm that didn’t get into Cassidy’s “reform” package was the perennial right-wing effort to enact a national “right to work” (for less) law. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced it this year and discussed it during the Senate Labor panel’s two hearings on “reform” ideas. He drew no backers. Cassidy set no dates for work on his labor law package but crowed that its passage would advance President Donald Trump’s “pro-worker agenda,” a statement that would produce derisive laughter in union halls. The right-wing lobbies, including the National Right to Work Committee and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, lauded it. The AFL-CIO and major unions had no immediate comment on Cassidy’s “reforms.” At the Senate Labor Committee hearings on labor law reform earlier this year, panel independents and Democrats, led by former chairman Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt., campaigned strongly and openly for the PRO Act. Cassidy didn’t even mention it, much less criticize it, in his statement. Hawley, who is considered a potential GOP presidential contender in 2028, brought up his mandatory arbitration of first contracts bill, discussing it with O’Brien at one of the hearings. Booker supported Hawley, but other senators on both sides of the aisle were silent. We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. 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https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/gop-senate-labor-panel-chair-cassidy-unveils-right-wing-labor-law/
