Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Worker’s Choice Act of 2023”.
Worker’s Choice Act of 2023
A BILL
To amend the National Labor Relations Act to permit certain employees to engage in independent negotiating.
Sec. 2 Findings
Congress finds the following:
In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act to protect the full freedom of association for employees.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the labor organization representation in the private sector was 6.8 percent in 2022. 93.2 percent of private sector employees had the freedom to represent themselves directly with their employer.
Over half the States have right-to-work laws, which guarantees an employee’s right to refrain from paying labor organization fees as a condition of employment.
Employees in right-to-work States who opt out of a labor organization must still accept labor organization negotiated compensation and terms of employment depriving them of their freedom from associating with the labor organization.
These employees should have the right to represent themselves in dealings with an employer.
While no employee should be required to pay a third party just to keep their job, labor organizations should be relieved of the requirement to provide services to nonpaying employees in right-to-work States that opt out of membership, refrain from paying dues, and reject labor organization representation.
Sec. 3 Independent negotiating
in subsection (a)(3)—
by striking the “or” before “(B)”; and
by striking “membership;” and inserting “membership, or (C) if, in a covered State, the employee has ceased to be a member of a labor organization or pay an exclusive representative”; and
in subsection (b)—
in paragraph (6), by striking “and” at the end;
in the matter following paragraph (7), by striking the period at the end and inserting a colon; and
by inserting at the end the following:
“(8) in a covered State, to represent or bargain on behalf of employees who have ceased to be a member of a labor organization or pay an exclusive representative;
“(9) in a covered State, to interfere with employees who have ceased to be a member of a labor organization or pay an exclusive representative engaged in independent negotiating; and
“(10) in a covered State, to restrain or coerce employees who have ceased to be a member of a labor organization or pay an exclusive representative from engaging in independent negotiating.”
Exclusion of workers engaged in independent negotiating from representation— Section 9(a) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 159(a)) is amended—
by inserting “(other than any employee who has elected to engage in independent negotiating)” after “all the employees”;
by inserting “, in a State or Territory that is not a covered State,” before “any individual”; and
by inserting “and, in a covered State, an individual employee shall engage in independent negotiating with their employer if such employee has ceased to be a member of a labor organization or pay an exclusive representative” after “in effect”.
Independent negotiating and covered State defined— Section 2 of such Act (29 U.S.C. 152) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(15) The term “independent negotiating” means, in a unit located in a covered State with an exclusive representative for the purposes of collective bargaining, negotiating between an employer and an individual employee as though such employee were not in such a unit and without regard to the existence of a collective-bargaining contract or agreement.
“(16) The term “covered State” means a State or Territory which prohibits the execution or application of agreements requiring membership in, or payment to, a labor organization as a condition of employment.”