{"id":35696,"date":"2026-06-10T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T01:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/house-passes-bill-to-speed-up-union-employer-negotiations\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T18:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T01:00:15","slug":"house-passes-bill-to-speed-up-union-employer-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/house-passes-bill-to-speed-up-union-employer-negotiations\/","title":{"rendered":"House passes bill to speed up union-employer negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech\">\n    <button class=\"text-to-speech__button button\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-to-speech__button__icon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/static\/img\/play.svg?313321260226\" alt=\"-\"><br \/>\n        Listen to the article<\/p>\n<p>            <span class=\"text-to-speech__button__audio-length\">3 min<\/span><\/p>\n<p>    <\/button><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls\">\n        <audio controls=\"\" class=\"js-text-to-speech\" preload=\"none\"><source src=\"https:\/\/text-to-speech.divecdn.com\/newspost\/822556\/2026-06-10_15.47.49\/house-bill-speed-union-employer-negotiations-construction.wav\" type=\"audio\/mp3\"><\/source><\/audio><\/p>\n<div class=\"text-to-speech__controls__text\">\n            This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/contact\/\" target=\"_blank\">feedback<\/a>.\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><span><span><span>Dive Brief:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/house-bill\/5408\/text\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>Faster Labor Contracts Act<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>, a bill that would accelerate negotiations between employers and workers who have voted to form or join a union.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>The result of the bill \u2014 should it become law \u2014 would create deadlines for specific negotiations and recourse for workers to settle disputes, tipping scales in favor of unions and other labor organizers. One contractor trade group referred to the potential law as a \u201cdisgrace.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span><span><span><span><span><span>When workers vote for labor representation, the resulting negotiation can drag out. The bill cites a 2021 Bloomberg Law study finding it took 465 days on average between the <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/bloomberg-law-analysis\/analysis-now-it-takes-465-days-to-sign-a-unions-first-contract\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>vote and final contract approval<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 class=\"standard-heading\"><span><span><span><span><span><span>Dive Insight:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Should the Faster Labor Contracts Act pass the Senate and get signed into law, employers would have 10 days to begin contract negotiations after a worker vote.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>After 90 days without agreement, either party can contact the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an agency that handles labor disputes. After another 30 days, a three-member arbitration panel would step in.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Though not yet enacted, employers should pay attention to the implications of such a law, said Trent Cotney, partner and construction team leader at law firm Adams and Reese.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cLabor rates and terms in a collective bargaining agreement directly implicate project pricing and scheduling, among other things,\u201d Cotney told Construction Dive. \u201cTherefore, the accelerated time frames of the FLCA should be a concern for the industry.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Associated Builders and Contractors <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.org\/News-Media\/News-Releases\/abc-house-passed-faster-labor-contracts-act-is-a-disgrace-to-free-enterprise\" target=\"_blank\"><span><span><span><span><span><span><span><span>decried the FLCA as a \u201cdisgrace\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><span><span><span><span><span><span> and criticized the 20 Republicans who broke with party lines to side with Democrats on passing the bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Mike Bellaman, CEO and president of ABC, said the bill would destroy \u201cvoluntary agreement and good-faith labor-management negotiations\u201d and put the contracts in the hands of the government, rather than private parties.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cThe FLCA imposes arbitrary and unrealistic deadlines on employers to finalize negotiations with newly elected unions or face \u2018binding interest arbitration of first contracts,\u2019\u201d Bellaman said. \u201cIn practice, this means, for the first time in American history, a federal government bureaucrat will appoint an individual to dictate exactly what is included in a contract between two private negotiating parties.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>He called on the Senate and President Donald Trump to reject the legislation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>Meanwhile, Daniel Hogan, CEO of The Association of Union Constructors, praised the bill in a statement shared with Construction Dive.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span><span>\u201cTAUC applauds the bipartisan House passage of the Faster Labor Contracts Act,\u201d said Hogan. \u201cStrong labor-management relationships are the foundation of union construction, and our industry delivers its best results when both sides come to the table and work toward practical solutions.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructiondive.com\/news\/house-bill-speed-union-employer-negotiations-construction\/822556\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">This article was originally posted at Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. 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Dive &#8230; <a title=\"House passes bill to speed up union-employer negotiations\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/house-passes-bill-to-speed-up-union-employer-negotiations\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about House passes bill to speed up union-employer negotiations\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-dive","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essential.construction\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}