Posts tagged Josh Hawley
Commentary: Labor Law’s Illiberal Trajectory
November 11, 2026 // State policymakers are following the same playbook. For example, in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois, they have created new “sectoral bargaining” systems for rideshare drivers. These systems group all drivers into a single election unit and slash the thresholds for union organizing. If as few as 2.5 percent of them say they want a union, the union gets contact information for the remaining 97.5 percent. And if the union then gets signatures from as few as 15 percent, it becomes their exclusive representative. The drivers never vote: they just wake up one day and find themselves in a union. Some states are going even further, experimenting with “industry standards” boards. These boards essentially replace workplace-level bargaining with industry-wide regulation.
Labor Unions Won Big on Election Day, With Ballot Initiatives and Friendly Politicians
November 9, 2026 // Perhaps most ominous are the developments at the federal level. Prior to the election, a bill called the Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) started to pick up steam in Congress. The legislation is sponsored by pro-union Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) and has a handful of Republican supporters on Capitol Hill. The FLCA cleared the House of Representatives but so far has stalled out in the Senate due to lack of votes. But now, depending on how the remaining uncalled Senate races shake out, the FLCA may be within a stone's throw of President Donald Trump's desk. If Democrats secure 56 seats in the Senate, that puts theoretical support for the FLCA at 58 votes once Republican support is factored in (in addition to Hawley, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R–Ohio) is also a co-sponsor of the FLCA).
Op-ed: Big Labor Schemes Power Grab for Democrats
November 3, 2026 // But there’s reason to doubt the sincerity of labor groups in building a long-lasting relationship. Away from the headlines, Big Labor has been an obstacle against the Trump Administration in court. Unions have sued the Trump Administration more than 70 times–nearly once a week–to stop initiatives including reducing and reorganizing the bloated federal bureaucracy, reducing federal spending, and reining in rogue “independent” bureaucracies full of personally motivated actors who didn’t want to be accountable to the President.
Reed Larson built a movement for the long fight
September 24, 2026 // As union membership continues a decadeslong decline, nearing historic lows, union officials are spending billions on politics every election cycle. Traditionally, Democrats have been the main recipients of union political funding. However, major unions, notably the Teamsters, have begun to turn toward populist Republicans to advance their legislative agenda. Teamsters head Sean O’Brien has taken up with Republicans such as Sen. Josh Hawley (MO), who, along with union-label Democrats, introduced the Teamsters-endorsed FLCA into the Senate.
Commentary: Are Unions Rising from the Political Grave?
September 21, 2026 // Here again, however, there may be less than meets the eye. Despite its surprising bipartisan support, the FLCA would raise significant constitutional questions if enacted. By relying on a government-mandated arbitration panel to resolve labor disputes, the law effectively empowers the state to impose contractual terms on private parties—a form of what constitutional lawyers call “state action.” As attorneys Alex MacDonald and Vinnie Vernuccio observe: “[S]tate action opens the door to a slew of constitutional requirements and restrictions, notably to protect rights of free speech and association.”
Op-ed: Right-to-Work States Attract Family Breadwinners
September 10, 2026 // The disconnect between rank-and-file workers and pro-union Republicans such as Josh Hawley of Missouri and Bernie Moreno of Ohio is especially disturbing. Such politicians’ avowed goal is to reconstitute the Republican Party, which is today overwhelmingly supportive of Right to Work, into a party that largely agrees with Democratic politicians’ support for labor special privileges over the individual freedom of the employee. If Hawley, Moreno and Co. get their way, pro-Right to Work citizens will routinely be denied a meaningful choice at the ballot box. The reality is, when they have a choice, working-age people prefer not to live in forced-unionism states. Census data make that very clear.
Op-ed: How ‘pro-union conservatism’ is a win for the radical Left
August 14, 2026 // The AFL-CIO has funneled over $107 million to “Working America,” a voter canvassing operation affiliated with the union. Since 2015, the Service Employees International Union has sent nearly $39 million to “The Fairness Project,” a progressive ballot initiative operation that is currently working to defeat a proposed abortion ban in Hawley’s home state of Missouri. Union operatives see “organizing” a workplace to form a union as just another kind of political organizing that a professional left-wing activist would do, which is why, once they take control of workplaces and begin negotiating a contract with the employer, unions push their political objectives, not just workplace conditions.
Trucking groups challenge bill that expands labor arbitration
August 7, 2026 // Representing American Trucking Associations as president, Chris Spear described the bill as government-mandated contracting instead of collective bargaining. He said if passed, the changes would eliminate employees from voting to approve an arbitration-imposed contract.
Bipartisan Bill to Accelerate Labor Contracts Roils Employers
August 6, 2026 // “The notion that I’m going to bargain a fresh contract and think of all the terms and conditions of employment that get woven into a contract, a contract that on the light side might be 10 or 15 pages single space and on the long side 50 pages, that’s just ridiculous,” he said. “People that have never bargained wrote this law.” The bill could also exacerbate timelines instead of accelerating them, as arbitrators and mediators become increasingly overwhelmed with an influx of contract disputes. That could be especially aggravated by ongoing staffing challenges at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said Steven M. Bernstein, regional managing partner and Labor Relations Group co-chair at Fisher & Phillips LLC.
Opinion: Big Labor, DEI and the GOP
July 6, 2026 // These Republicans are promoting much more than the FLCA’s mandated arbitration after 120 days of collective bargaining. The bill gives the whip hand to unions in negotiating labor contracts, and along with that comes the left-wing cultural agenda that unions like the Teamsters and the SEIU have adopted. Take DEI—diversity, equity and inclusion—which unions have made part of their social-justice mission and collective-bargaining agreements. The General Teamsters Local Union No. 174 made DEI a feature of its negotiation with the Port of Seattle. The Writers Guild of America, East, included DEI targets for the hiring process and a formal diversity committee in its bargaining with Vox Media.