Rob Andrews: “Under current law, when collective bargaining reaches an impasse, employers have a perverse incentive to bargain to…”

“Under current law, when collective bargaining reaches an impasse, employers have a perverse incentive to bargain to impasse and then compel a union to acquiesce in conditions mandated by the employer. From a related point of view, it is not the intent of the Sales Incentive Compensation Act to create a new defense for an unfair labor practice perpetrated by an employer or to create an exemption excusing what would otherwise be an unfair labor practice. The Sales Incentive Compensation Act does not create a right or authority for an employer to implement unilaterally the exemption provided by the legislation in a circumstance where an employer is engaged in collective bargaining negotiations with a labor organization and the negotiating parties have reached an impasse. As an author of H.R. 2888, I want to make clear that the bill should not be used as an instrument, if an impasse occurs, to secure an outcome that would never result from the normal ebb and flow of the free collective bargaining process.”