EXCLUSIVE — Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is pushing hard for new bipartisan union legislation and acknowledged that the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the sweeping overhaul sought by organized labor for years, is largely in the rear-view mirror.
O’Brien laid out his hopes for the more modest Faster Labor Contracts Act, a bipartisan bill that would speed up the process of reaching labor agreements, in an interview with the Washington Examiner in his office overlooking the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
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The PRO Act, ambitious legislation that included a wish list of labor measures, was pushed hard by organized labor and backed by former President Joe Biden, but never came to fruition, in large part because of strong Republican opposition.
“You look at the last two administrations, whether it was [former President Barack] Obama or Biden,” O’Brien said, “under Obama, our biggest issue in labor was the Employee Free Choice Act, which basically evolved into the PRO Act under the Biden administration — and none of it ever went anywhere. You couldn’t get bipartisan support on any of it.”
“The PRO Act? Never going to be embraced bipartisan,” O’Brien added.
But O’Brien and the Teamsters are now hopeful that the Faster Labor Contracts Act, a provision that was pulled from the PRO Act, will succeed. He said it would mark the first major pro-worker labor reform in decades.
O’Brien said the Teamsters have thrown their full support behind the effort and expressed optimism that the legislation could make it across the finish line.
“In the end, we’re just going to keep working it, and hopefully it’ll get done, and that’ll be huge — I mean, that’ll be the really first labor reform in about 30 years,” O’Brien said, clarifying that he means labor reform that is geared toward aiding workers and not corporations.
The legislation would require employers to collectively bargain with newly organized workers within 10 days of them voting to form their union. Current law doesn’t impose a negotiation deadline despite requiring workers and employers to bargain in good faith.
Kara Deniz, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters, further emphasized to the Washington Examiner how the Teamsters are embracing the new legislation over the PRO Act.
The bill is sponsored by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) on the Senate side and Reps. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Pete Stauber (R-MN) on the House side.
“The PRO Act is trotted out in election years for scorecards, not results,” she said. “It contains everything but the kitchen sink. Republicans will not agree to pass it, and Democrats know that going in. Recognizing what’s politically possible, the Teamsters met with Sen. Hawley to work together on the Faster Labor Contracts Act, real bipartisan legislation that will actually pass.”
O’Brien said that his group started working on the bill with Hawley before the election. “So this was something like, ‘Hey, if we collaborate on this, this is good for working people,'” he said.
Hawley told the Washington Examiner on Monday that he has been pushing Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to include the legislation in a tranche of labor bills he is planning to mark up.
“I’ve made clear to him, this is a priority for me,” Hawley said. “I can’t imagine I would support labor bills that don’t have that in it. I mean, it’s the No. 1 priority of labor.”
When the legislation was introduced, Stauber said that, after voting to form a union, workers often face “silence or stalling tactics” from employers when negotiating their first union contract.
“As a former police officer who organized my union, I’ve seen firsthand how unfair and frustrating this process can be for some,” he said.
The PRO Act contained a number of provisions that many Republicans vociferously opposed. It would have enacted sweeping changes to the employment landscape, including adjusting what kinds of workers can be classified as independent contractors. Corporations such as Uber might have been compelled to place workers on its payroll instead of just paying them for the services provided by drivers.
The act would have also essentially ended right-to-work laws, which have been enacted in more than two dozen states and stop unions from requiring that employees pay dues or fees. Employees who benefit from a collective bargaining agreement would have been compelled to contribute to the union, according to the PRO Act.
But O’Brien said that the Faster Labor Contracts Act is something that members of both parties can get behind and that it will hopefully be signed into law by President Donald Trump.
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O’Brien pointed out that no Republican senators signed onto the PRO Act, a far cry from the 60-vote majority that is typically needed to pass legislation in the Senate. Plus, just a few GOP House members supported it. O’Brien sees this new bipartisan legislation as a whole different ball game.
“Well, it’s a realistic proposal that can be embraced by both parties,” he said.
