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This section sets forth congressional findings regarding employees' rights to organize collectively for higher wages and benefits; protracted delays in negotiating first collective bargaining agreements following a successful representation vote, which averaged 465 days according to a 2021 Bloomberg Law study; employers' benefits from such delays; and the need for federal labor law to facilitate prompt first contracts after union certification.
This section revises the duty to bargain collectively under Section 8(d) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)—which generally requires parties to meet at reasonable times, bargain in good faith over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment, and refrain from unilateral changes—to facilitate initial collective bargaining agreements following union certification or recognition under Section 9(a). Specifically, it (1) requires employers to maintain current wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment pending an agreement; (2) provides that the employer's duty to bargain continues absent decertification of the representative following an election under Section 9; and (3) establishes a process for initial agreements whereby parties must begin bargaining within 10 days (or as agreed) of a written request, request mediation from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) if no agreement after 90 days (or as agreed), and proceed to binding arbitration by a three-person panel (one selected by each party, one neutral) if no agreement after 30 days of mediation (or as agreed), with the panel's decision (based on employer finances, operations, employee cost of living and needs, and comparable wages and benefits) binding for two years unless mutually amended. (As background, the NLRA protects private-sector employees' rights to organize and bargain collectively; this provision addresses delays in reaching first contracts, which affect roughly 50% of newly certified units.)
This section directs the Comptroller General of the United States to submit to Congress, not later than one year after enactment, a report examining the average number of days between (1) the certification or recognition of an individual or labor organization as the exclusive bargaining representative of employees under §9(a) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 159(a)) following enactment and (2) the parties' initial collective bargaining agreement. (Section 9(a) designates a majority-elected representative as the exclusive agent for all employees in a bargaining unit on wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.)