The dust is still settling after last week’s midterm elections, but if you’re reading this, then you know that the balance of power shifted in Congress. As of this writing, Democrats will have 54 Senate seats in 2027, with two more yet to be called but expected to be Democratic pickups. If those lawmakers vote along party lines, only four Republican votes are needed to reach 60 and overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
This makes the Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) more likely to become law. Two of the four GOP votes needed, sponsor Josh Hawley (R-MO) and cosponsor Bernie Moreno (R-OH), will be back next term. The FLCA will need to be reintroduced in the Senate and House when the new Congress convenes in January, but it cleared the House once and will face fewer hurdles to do so again since Democrats gained at least 42 House seats in the midterms.
As Phil Wilson, CEO and General Counsel of LRI Consulting Services, Inc. (LRICS), wrote in our most recent INK newsletter, “This bill has moved from long shot to live threat.”
What does that mean for employers? Buckle up.
If the FLCA passes, LRICS will provide a complete action plan for employers, but here’s a refresher on what the legislation aims to do.
The FLCA will fundamentally change how first contracts are negotiated, and that’s by design because this is a “Teamsters-led bill” that was heavily promoted by Sean O’Brien. The negotiation timeline will be drastically shortened to shove contracts through, whether either side likes it or not:
- Employers will have 10 days to start bargaining after a union election.
- If 90 days of negotiations fail, a federal mediator will take over.
- 30 days later, a government-mandated arbitration panel will take over and come up with the terms of a binding two-year contract.
- Will workers vote on these contracts? Nope! They will not be able to ratify or reject these deals.
Putting contracts in the hands of arbitrators who, as American Trucking Associations CEO Chris Spear put it, have “no stake in the outcome” could have disastrous effects. The results might harm businesses to the point of them becoming financially unsustainable, which would hurt workers, too.
An important factor to consider with the FLCA is that there’s strong reason to doubt the “faster” part. Mediation would be handled by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), which was reduced from 143 mediators to four during the 2025 DOGE cuts. The agency’s most recent “Fast Facts” sheet claims 60 mediators are on staff, but that still puts FMCS far short of what it would need to handle the added workload of these contracts in a timely manner.
One more twist: Could Democrats also try again to pass the PRO Act? Don’t be surprised to see them make that attempt. Last week, Biden-era NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo made noises about a “PRO Act Plus,” which she hopes Democrats will introduce in 2027. Abruzzo made that statement at the American Bar Association’s 20th Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference held in Washington, D.C.
We’ll be watching for further updates, and if you’d like to take action, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), a longstanding employer advocacy group on labor policy, has set up a page where employers and workers can send a letter directly to their senators opposing the FLCA.
