Marshall-backed bill threatens employer-employee relations | Opinion

As a small business owner, I cherish the relationship I have with my employees.

I can’t imagine having a panel of government bureaucrats step between us and dictate new workplace rules that neither I, nor my employees, ever agreed to.

That’s why I’m deeply troubled by legislation that is currently under consideration in Washington: The Faster Labor Contracts Act.

If a newly unionized workplace fails to reach a first contract within roughly 100 days, the FLCA hands that process over to a panel of government-appointed arbitrators.

Those arbitrators are not required to have any expertise in the relevant industry.

They bear no liability if the terms they impose drive a business into the ground. And once they have issued a ruling, it remains in effect for two years.

Workers don’t get to vote on it, and the employer has no recourse.

But the part of this bill that should alarm every Kansas business owner is what can end up in these contracts.

Unions across the country have been using contract negotiations to advance a political agenda that has nothing to do with wages or working conditions.

Under the FLCA, a panel of unaccountable government arbitrators could lock those demands into binding agreements that neither employers nor workers asked for.

Consider what unions have put on the table in recent years.

The union at Trader Joe’s demanded that the company designate all its unionized locations as “sanctuary stores” — something the company rejected as illegal.

Multiple union locals have demanded contract language requiring employers to bar federal immigration agents from entering company property without a judge-signed warrant, effectively conscripting private businesses into resistance against federal law enforcement.

Here in Kansas, the Wichita Federation of Teachers — AFT Local 725 — has demanded that teacher orientation include mandatory diversity training components, with all teachers required to attend additional diversity sessions throughout the school year.

Under the FLCA, demands like this could be imposed on Kansas employers by arbitrators with no stake in the outcome and no accountability to Kansas workers.

Sen. Roger Marshall has always been a champion for Kansas families and small businesses.

He is a co-sponsor of this bill, which I can only assume is because he wants to show support for working people.

But I’d ask him to look carefully at what this bill actually does.

It certainly does not empower the average working men and women of this country.

In reality, it could hand union leaders — and through them, far-left activists — the power to embed their political agenda into workplace contracts through a government process that answers to no one.

Small business owners are not anti-worker. My employees are my neighbors. I want them fairly compensated and genuinely heard.

A contract handed down by government arbitrators who have never stepped inside the doors of a given workplace — and who face zero consequences if their ruling forces it out of business — is not a voice for workers.

Sen. Marshall has spent his career fighting for Kansas values against Washington overreach. I hope he will take a closer look at this bill and reconsider his support.

— Brent Bowers owns Let’s Roll Bowling, which operates locations in Derby, Olathe and Wichita.

This story was originally published June 8, 2026 at 11:47 AM.