NPR reports:
It’s a problem the labor movement has decried for years: After a successful union election, it takes far too long — an average of 465 days, according to Bloomberg Law — for workers and their employers to reach a first contract.
In some cases, it takes even longer. Neither the Buffalo, N.Y., Starbucks baristas who unionized in late 2021 nor the Staten Island Amazon warehouse workers who unionized in the spring of 2022 have a contract.
Now, by a vote of 230 to 193, the House has approved a bill that would force employers to the table, allow federal mediators to get involved if a deal is not reached within 90 days, and — if needed — settle the matter through arbitration shortly thereafter.
Twenty Republicans joined Democrats in voting on Tuesday evening to pass the measure, called the Faster Labor Contracts Act.
Congressman Cline, of course, joined most Republicans to vote NO.
I say “of course” because Cline’s hostility to workers who organize unions and seek to bargain collectively with their employers is longstanding and well-documented .
The fact that Cline once said a something favorable about unions at a Labor Day event in Covington doesn’t change that. It’s more telling that every time he addresses a crowd at Labor Day in Buena Vista, he endorses anti-union “right to work” laws.
He emphasizes that the only right he supports for workers is the right not to join a union.
Never mind that as of last August, 68 percent of Americans approved of labor unions. Never mind that up to 70 percent of non-union hourly workers would join a union if given a chance.
And never mind that in 2016 Virginia voters– including a majority in Cline’s Sixth District– rejected a Republican effort led by then-delegate Ben Cline to enshrine Virginia’s “right to work” law in the Commonwealth’s Constitution.
It seems most of the people Cline represents in Congress don’t hate unions as much as he and other Republican politicians think they should.
Cline Watch 