June 9, 2026
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National Taxpayers Union urges all representatives to vote “NO” on H.R. 5408, the “Fast Labor Contracts Act” authored by Reps. Donald Norcross (D-NJ) and Pete Stauber (R-MN). While the legislation is marketed as a way to help workers secure contracts more quickly, it risks undermining the collective bargaining process, increasing labor disputes, and reducing flexibility for both employees and employers.
Collective bargaining works best when workers and businesses have the freedom to negotiate in good faith contract terms that best fit the needs of those involved. Agreed upon contracts often determine the timetables for wage increases, workplace conditions, and benefits, among other issues important to both sides of the bargaining table. Yet, this legislation imposes arbitrary deadlines which may pressure negotiators to accept incomplete or suboptimal agreements simply to satisfy statutory requirements.
This legislation represents another intrusion into America's labor market. Specifically, if the bargaining table fails to reach an agreement within the new government-determined deadline, a federal panel then decides the terms of a binding labor contract. In other words, Washington bureaucrats—not employees or employers—would ultimately decide wages, benefits, work rules, and other critical workplace policies. Under this bill, a future administration that kowtowed to Big Labor could dramatically tilt the playing field away from employers.
This provision was a core part of Big Labor’s wishlist within the PRO Act, a Frankenstein’s monster written for the benefit of labor unions. Rather than protecting worker freedom, the bill strips both sides of their negotiating power and hands it over to unelected arbitrators.
As a coalition of two-dozen free market and limited government organizations recently wrote, “unlike workers and employers, arbitrators have no skin in the game and face no real consequences for dictating terms that cripple a company. Arbitrators have little way of knowing what any given business can reasonably afford, and if they get it wrong, jobs and even the business itself can be lost. Rather than preserving workplace democracy, the legislation risks imposing one-size-fits-all outcomes crafted by officials with little understanding of the unique needs of individual workplaces.”
Americans are perfectly within their rights to choose to join a union, but the government should not continue to put its finger on the scale in favor of such an outcome. Unfortunately, the Faster Labor Contracts Act is just another attempt of a union power-grab masquerading as worker empowerment and will further put the federal government on the side of unions.
Roll call votes on H.R. 5408 will be included in NTU’s annual rating of Congress and “NO” votes will be considered the pro-taxpayer position.
If you have any questions, please contact NTU’s Vice President of Federal Affairs Thomas Aiello at Taiello@ntu.org
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