(The Center Square) – During a speech to the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters Convention in Hershey last week, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1st District, guaranteed its members that a pro-union piece of legislation will pass.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act is a bipartisan proposal that would speed up first contracts for new unions. Supporters of this bill argue the legislation is important because it will ensure that when workers vote to form a union, employers won’t be allowed to drag out negotiations on a first collective bargaining agreement.
Fitzpatrick referred to this proposal as the “most imminent piece of legislation that’s going to have the biggest impact on you all,” to the gathering of Teamsters.
“I've made my pledge to President (Sean) O'Brien, to President (Bill) Hamilton, to Danny (Grace), that we will force that to the floor, and that is a guarantee,” Fitzpatrick said. “It will pass. That is a guarantee.”
“And then our job is to find a way to navigate the Senate on that,” he continued. “But if that emerges out of the House, there's going to be a lot of pressure for them to put that up for a vote, and it's a two party bill, so I actually feel quite good. And in a town where it's hard to get things done, I actually feel quite good about the prospects, and that's going to be a huge win for the Teamsters.”
Teamsters in Pennsylvania and across the country have been vocal supporters of the bill, which would require employers to collectively bargain with newly organized workers within 10 days of voting to form their union.
“When passed, the Faster Labor Contracts Act will put working families in this country back at the center of the American economy, and it has the potential to transform entire industries for the better,” International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in September. “This legislation is one of the most consequential bills for organized labor in generations. The Teamsters Union is calling on Congress to take this bipartisan bill seriously and pass it.”
Fitzpatrick isn’t the only member of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation backing The Faster Labor Contracts Act. U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-2nd District, Rob Bresnahan, R-8th District, Chris Deluzio, D-17th District, Dwight Evans, D-3rd District, and Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5th District are also listed as co-sponsors of the proposal.
There are 98 co-sponsors in the U.S. House for this proposal. Eighty-one of them are Democrats, while 17 are Republicans.
In the U.S. Senate, 13 Democrats and 2 Republicans are sponsoring the legislation. Neither of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa. and Dave McCormick, R-Pa. are listed as co-sponsors.
On April 20, U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, D-NJ, announced that he was filing a discharge petition to force a vote on the proposal, since they say U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., won’t bring the bill to the floor.
U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said on April 20 that the discharge petition would “soon” get the 218 signatures necessary to force a vote on the House floor.
“We're just developing the strategy, but it's a question of when, not if,” Fitzpatrick told the Teamsters on April 27. “It will be brought to the floor and it will pass. That is a guarantee.”
There is some pressure from outside organizations to oppose this bill.
Americans for Prosperity, a conservative lobbying group that opposes unionization, submitted a letter to members of Congress on April 29 opposing the efforts to force the bill onto the House floor using a discharge petition.
“Forced first-contract arbitration has long been a core element of the broader PRO Act agenda. The Faster Labor Contracts Act advances this controversial PRO Act element, government-imposed labor contracts, while falsely branding it as a pro-worker reform,” Brent Gardner, Chief Government Affairs Officer, Americans for Prosperity said in the letter. “Instead of being a pro-worker solution, the Faster Labor Contracts Act advances a union driven agenda that substitutes government mandates for genuine worker choice.”
During his speech, Fitzpatrick also touted his support for the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, also known as the PRO Act.
He described that bill, which he is a co-sponsor, as the “Super Bowl of organized labor” and a “very, very heavy all-in organized labor bill.”
However, Fitzpatrick noted the challenges that they have had advancing that proposal and said that The Faster Labor Contracts Act is “much like that, but it’s pared down a little bit.”
The PRO Act has a total of 215 co-sponsors: 213 of them are Democrats, while Fitzpatrick is just one of the two Republicans supporting it.
Eight members of the state’s congressional delegation support the PRO Act. Fitzpatrick, Boyle, Deluzio, Evans, and Scanlon, who back the Faster Labor Contracts Act, are also listed as co-sponsors for the PRO Act.
U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-4th District; Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th District; and Summer Lee, D-12th District, are named as co-sponsors of the PRO Act, but not the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
Forty-five U.S. Senators, all Democrats, co-sponsor the PRO Act, including Sen. John Fetterman.
“When it comes to supporting these types of legislation and these bills, it's easy,” Fitzpatrick said. “It really is.”
Fitzpatrick, like other elected officials who addressed the conference, mentioned his family’s connection to organized labor and recalled his grandfather working for the Ironworkers Union after immigrating to America.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million workers, ranging from newspaper reporters, truck drivers, warehouse workers, and many jobs in between. The Pennsylvania Conference, which is an affiliate, represents approximately 95,000 working Teamsters.
During his speech, Fitzpatrick also promoted his role in the U.S. House as a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
“At the core of our group is an unequivocal and unapologetic support for organized labor, including the Teamsters and all of your brothers and sisters throughout the building trades and throughout the unions,” Fitzpatrick said.
“That is a core tenant of our group, because our goal for labor is to take it out of politics altogether and make it a universally accepted truth that we are always going to support the men and women of organized labor, take it out of politics all together,” he said to applause. “Because that is the only way to build a sustainable mission.”
This year’s Teamsters Convention featured speakers from both sides of the aisle and both parties. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis was the lone statewide elected official who spoke.
However, several incumbent members of Congress and candidates addressed the convention in addition to Fitzpatrick. Fellow Republican Rob Bresnahan, who represents a district in northeast Pennsylvania, spoke at the conference, as well as Democratic congressional hopefuls Bob Brooks, Paige Cognetti, and Janelle Stelson.
In 2024, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters decided not to endorse a candidate for president, although the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket. Survey data, however, suggested that 60% of Pennsylvania members favored Trump.
Most of the candidates the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters backed in 2024 were Democrats. State Treasurer Stacy Garrity was the lone Republican statewide elected official to receive the union's backing, while Fitzpatrick was the only Republican candidate for Congress to earn its support.
PA Teamster President Bill Hamilton offered words of praise for Fitzpatrick during the convention.
“He's, to me, a Teamster hero,” Hamilton said. “Brian Fitzpatrick stands up in a bipartisan way and represents the Teamsters in our country and in his area better than anybody I've ever seen on either side of the aisle.”
During the meeting last week, the group announced they were supporting Gov. Josh Shapiro’s bid for re-election, plus the campaigns of Brooks, Cognetti, and Stelson.
They didn’t formally do an endorsement vote for the 1st Congressional race, but Hamilton assured Fitzpatrick they were supporting him.
“We need to get this guy re-elected. I don't care what party you belong to, this guy needs our vote, and we will campaign hard to get Brian back where he belongs, helping us because he does every single day he’s down there, and he does every single day he’s anywhere,” Hamilton said. “He speaks well of labor and of us and of working people across this state and across this country, and he's well respected, and we should always have his back, and we will.”
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