U.S. House Adds Card Check, Arbitration Provisions To Supply Chain Bill

On February 4 on a 222-210 vote, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation, the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength Act of 2022 (COMPETES Act), which is aimed at expanding domestic supply chains and make the country more competitive with nations like China.

As reported in Connecting the Dots last week, this bill includes:

• $45 billion to support supply-chain resilience and improve the nation’s economy by preventing shortages of critical goods.
• $50.2 billion to incentivize domestic investment in facilities for fabrication, assembly, testing, or advanced packaging of semiconductors and to support semiconductor research and development.
• Funding to help critical industries address their workforce shortages.

Unfortunately, at the last minute lawmakers added an amendment that applies labor provisions to entities that would receive certain funding under the bill. The provisions would require funding recipients and their contractors and subcontractors to agree to recognize any union based on card check (union organizing without a secret ballot election) and agree to let an arbitration panel set the terms of collective bargaining agreements if parties do not come to an agreement within 120 days.

Both provisions were part of the Employee Free Choice Act, which Congress rejected several years ago and which MSCI and other business trade associations have opposed.

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW), which MSCI is a member of, quickly wrote a letter  to House lawmakers asking them to oppose the amendment. The letter said these provisions would infringe on workers’ rights and destabilize labor-management relations nationwide.

The CDW also has argued:

• Workers must have the right to vote in private about whether or not they want a union, and depriving them of this right will not make the United States more competitive with China;
• Forcing workers to make this decision publicly in front of union organizers and coworkers all but guarantees intimidation and fraud and undermines election integrity; and
• Having arbitrators, who generally lack business experience, force binding terms and conditions of collective bargaining agreements is an invitation for bankruptcies, job loss, and government bailouts and will undermine, U.S. competitiveness.

The U.S. Senate has passed its own version of the COMPETES Act. The two now will have to reconcile their versions to reach an agreement that can attract the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate.