Social conservatives split over abortion and transgender medicine in union contracts bill

The prospect of including abortion and transgender medicine insurance coverage in union contracts is pitting socially conservative Republicans against each other as a labor relations bill works its way through Congress.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act, which Democrats passed by a special procedural maneuver with some Republican support in the House on June 9, is fracturing the conservative coalition on multiple fronts. Many free marketeers oppose the legislation as putting a thumb on the scales for organized labor. But others oppose it on socially conservative grounds, arguing it could require employers to cover abortion and transgender medical procedures, such as cross-sex hormones, mastectomies, and vaginoplasty.

The FLCA, sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), would require employers to bargain within 10 days of union certification to prevent employers from stalling first-time union contracts.

Current labor laws impose no timeline for reaching a first contract, but opponents of the status quo say it takes an average of over 450 days to negotiate the first union contract. Hawley and Booker’s legislation, if passed, would trigger a mandated arbitration process involving a three-arbitrator panel if a contract is not agreed upon within 120 days of establishing a union. The employer and employees would each select an arbitrator alongside a third neutral party as a tiebreaking vote.

Critics contend this arbitration process takes the contract out of the hands of workers and employers because the third arbitrator is selected by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a small bureau within the Labor Department, making the process vulnerable to politics.

Thomas Beck, a senior adviser at the Workplace Policy Institute of the law firm Littler Mendelson, which represents management in labor law cases, told the Washington Examiner he believes abortion and transgender medicine, along with other policies under the umbrella of diversity, equity, and inclusion, would become central features of labor contracts under FLCA negotiation rules.

Beck spent more than 30 years of his career representing employers through union contract negotiations and arbitrations, including 13 years as the head of employee relations for HCA Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in the United States. He also handled labor relations issues for both Trump presidential transition teams.

Beck said he believes abortion and transgender medical coverage would be “an easy thing” for arbitrators to use as a bargaining chip to reach an agreement on the three-person panel.

“It’s going to be easy for the arbitrator to say, ‘OK, employer, I’m not going to make you pay the high wages that the union is demanding,’” Beck said as a hypothetical. ‘“But what I am going to make you do is I’m going to make you give generous health benefits and give very generous access to abortion on demand and give very, very generous access to so-called gender-affirming care.”

The office of Hawley, a top social conservative in the Senate, pushed back against the idea that the legislation could lead to greater coverage of abortion and transgender procedures. A spokesperson told the Washington Examiner the bill will have the greatest effect on large corporations, such as Amazon, that stall union contracts but already support leftist ideas, including support for transgender medicine, abortion, and other DEI policies.

“These absurd allegations about a strong bill to protect working people just show that giant corporations are desperate to kill legislation that would help American workers while they invest billions in DEI insanity,” the spokesperson said.

Unions and abortion history

Opponents of the FLCA legislation point to the long history of unions supporting abortion and transgender medicine, as well as broader support for left-wing social issues.

The AFL-CIO’s model for collective bargaining language, for example, ensures health plans cover abortion and gender transition procedures. The Service Employees International Union in 2022 unanimously approved a resolution for “trans-inclusive healthcare” and promised to do “everything in [its] power to keep abortion and all reproductive healthcare services safe, legal, and accessible.”

The Teamsters, which endorsed the FLCA, does not have a national position on abortion, but various chapters of the organization are staunch advocates for abortion access. Teamsters 117, for example, which represents 19,000 workers at 200 employers in Washington state, fully embraces the proposition that “abortion rights are workers rights.”

Kara Deniz, assistant director of communications for the Teamsters, told the Washington Examiner that concerns about abortion and transgender medicine coverage are “misdirecting and obscuring the issue.”

“Healthcare is all negotiable,” Deniz said.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board published a scathing critique of the legislation on Monday, condemning the FLCA and chiding the GOP legislators in the House who supported it.

“We wonder if Republicans know what they’ve voted for, and not merely on wages or pensions,” the editorial board wrote. “Unions, allied with Democrats, have long supported a progressive agenda that includes collective bargaining for abortion coverage and transgender healthcare.”

Beck said broader Republican support for the legislation might boil down to a “misperception” of how well unions represent the political opinions of their membership.

“Unions are not workers,” Beck said. “And union leaders, for sure, do not ideologically represent them. In terms of their ideology and in terms of their priorities, they often are not in alignment with their rank and file out there doing the work across our nation.”

Key committee Republicans split

The split within Republican ranks over the bill can be seen as a test of whether signaling support for economic populism in an election year is more important than supporting anti-abortion policies.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Hawley each have been leading voices in the Senate supporting anti-abortion causes as well as opposing transgender medical procedures for minors.

But Cassidy told the Washington Examiner in a statement that he could not support the legislation and still “defend Louisiana values.”

“I’m all for finding solutions to strengthen worker’s rights and make collective bargaining more efficient,” Cassidy said. “But a policy forcing Louisiana workers and small businesses to potentially fund abortions and sex-change operations is not the answer.”

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Hawley’s spokesperson said federal labor law “already shields religious employers” from covering abortion or transgender medical procedures that violate religious conscience.

“Senator Hawley is fighting for the American worker, rather than the same Big Business who stands with the radical left to push woke, transgender ideology.”