U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), a founding co-chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus, IBEW Local 351 member and former president of the Southern New Jersey Central Labor Council, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast as part of the Labor Day episode.
Norcross shared his career path from a working-class family in Pennsauken, N.J., through a four-year IBEW apprenticeship, his years as a business agent, the creation of the Public Officials with a Union Label initiative and eventually 14 years in Congress. He discussed the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which the U.S. House passed through a discharge petition — only the second time in nearly 90 years that a discharge petition has forced a major labor bill to the floor, following Mary Teresa Norton of New Jersey's use of the same mechanism to advance the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938.
Norcross also addressed former President Ronald Reagan's firing of air traffic controllers as the turning point in modern labor history, the current 70 percent public approval rating for unions and what a level playing field for workers would actually look like.
- The Public Officials with a Union Label initiative grew from a conversation among Norcross, two high school friends — an ironworker and a carpenter — and a firefighter, who together ran for office in Gloucester County, Camden County and the city of Camden. From that start, the initiative placed more than 100 union members in public office across four New Jersey counties, including Ironworker Steve Sweeney as the New Jersey State Senate's longest-serving president. The New Jersey State AFL-CIO then built a statewide training program to educate rank-and-file union members on the mechanics of running for office, and the model has since spread to other states.
- The Faster Labor Contracts Act passed the House through a discharge petition, a procedural tool that forces a bill to the floor when the majority refuses to bring it up. Norcross noted that the last time a discharge petition successfully advanced a major labor bill was almost 88 years earlier, when Mary Teresa Norton of New Jersey used the same mechanism to force the Fair Labor Standards Act to a vote. The Faster Labor Contracts Act requires employers to begin bargaining after a union election is settled, provides for mediation if no contract is reached and moves to binding arbitration if mediation fails, with the resulting first contract lasting two years.
- Norcross described Reagan's firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers as the pivotal moment in modern labor history, when corporate America shifted from a cooperative to an adversarial posture toward unions. He connected that shift to a minimum wage that has not been increased in nearly 20 years, the rise of the first trillionaire in American history and a level of economic inequality that has pushed public approval of unions to approximately 70 percent. The same people who are violently anti-union are the ones whose business model depends on the absence of collective bargaining to maintain a rigged playing field, he said.
A Working-Class Kid Who Attended the Other Four-Year School
Donald Norcross grew up in Pennsauken, N.J., a small working-class town. He was one of four brothers, with his two older brothers going to college. Norcross was not built for college at that point in his life. He loved working with his hands and wanted a career that matched that. He applied for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers apprenticeship program and was accepted. The four-year apprenticeship, as he describes it, was the other four-year school. He worked job sites across the Delaware Valley, covering Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey. He mainly did industrial work and loved every minute of it.
He is now 14 years into a congressional career and still calls that trajectory remarkable. The last place he ever expected to be was a member of the U.S. Congress.
Putting Union Members in the Room
The observation that drove Norcross into public life is the same one that drives the Congressional Labor Caucus's work today. People who work with their hands and are represented by collective bargaining agreements were often not in the room when decisions were made. As president of the Southern New Jersey AFL-CIO, he sat down with two high school friends, an ironworker and a carpenter, along with a firefighter. Together, they asked a simple question: how do they change that?
The answer centered on running office and being elected. The ironworker ran for county commissioner in Gloucester County. The carpenter ran for a similar seat in Camden County. The firefighter ran in the city of Camden. All three won. Once in office, Project Labor Agreements became more prevalent. The initiative grew.
They called it Public Officials with a Union Label, borrowing the language that union members already understood from their experience as apprentices, when they looked for the union label on the products they bought. It was a simple technique for determining whether the work had been done by someone with a collective bargaining agreement. They applied the same principle to public office: look for elected officials with union backgrounds who understand what that means.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO, under State President Charles Wowkanech and Secretary-Treasurer Laurel Brennan, built a statewide training program to educate rank-and-file members on how to run for office. It covered the election process, the rules, the regulations, as well as the things you do and the things you avoid. From a starting conversation among four friends, the initiative grew to more than 100 union members in public office across four New Jersey counties. Ironworker Steve Sweeney was among those elected, and he became the longest-serving president of the New Jersey State Senate. And Donald Norcross, an IBEW electrician, went to the state Senate before going to Washington.
Other states took notice. The model spread. And in Washington D.C., the Congressional Labor Caucus, which Norcross co-founded, now has close to 130 members within the House Democratic Caucus.
The Bipartisan Building Trades Caucus and the PRO Act
Norcross serves as co-chair of two separate caucuses. The Congressional Labor Caucus, with close to 130 Democratic members, works across the full range of labor issues. The Bipartisan Building Trades Caucus brings in members from both parties, specifically on building trades issues, where bipartisan cooperation is more achievable. The Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act has been a tougher lift to secure bipartisan support and has been working its way through Congress for more than a decade.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act and a Discharge Petition 88 Years in the Making
One of the most significant recent legislative accomplishments Norcross discussed was the Faster Labor Contracts Act, which the House passed through a discharge petition. A discharge petition is an obscure procedural tool in Congress. It forces a bill to the House floor for a vote when the majority leadership refuses to bring it up. It requires collecting signatures from a majority of House members. It is rarely used and rarely successful.
Norcross said he did not know when the discharge petition was filed that he was replicating something that had happened almost 88 years earlier to the day. Mary Norton, a congresswoman from New Jersey serving during the FDR administration, used a discharge petition to force the Fair Labor Standards Act to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. That bill, once passed and signed, became the foundation of almost everything organized labor does, including the labor standards, rules and regulations that govern the workplace.
The Faster Labor Contracts Act addresses a problem that has grown increasingly common: employers who use the gap between a union election win and a first contract as a weapon. Winning an election is not enough. If an employer simply refuses to bargain in good faith and runs out the clock, workers who voted for union representation can go years without seeing any result from that vote.
The Amazon situation on Staten Island is the clearest example. Workers at the distribution facility organized and won the right to form a union and negotiate a contract. That was more than two years ago. They still do not have a contract. The Faster Labor Contracts Act requires employers to begin bargaining once an election is settled and all appeals are exhausted. If no contract is reached within a defined period, either side can request mediation. If mediation fails, the matter proceeds to binding arbitration, and the arbitrator's decision becomes the first contract, which lasts two years. Norcross compared it to a marriage counselor: you get both sides in a room, you try to bring them together, and if you cannot, someone makes a decision, and you move on.
Reagan, PATCO and the Turn in Labor History
Norcross described the Reagan administration's firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers as the pivotal moment in modern labor history. It was the point at which corporate America's relationship with unions shifted from cooperative to adversarial, he believes. Before Reagan, labor-management relations had an established framework, however imperfect. After PATCO, employers understood that the government would side with management in a fundamental showdown. The consequences played out over the following decades. This included stagnant wages, declining union density, minimum wages that stopped rising, and a concentration of wealth at the top that has produced the current escalation in CEO pay ratios.
As a business agent for IBEW Local 351, Norcross dealt with Donald Trump's three Atlantic City casinos. Where there was a level playing field, Trump built with union labor, and his casino workers were covered. He also bankrupted those casinos and left those workers badly exposed. Norcross said it illustrated something: Trump is capable of working with unions when he has to, and is capable of abandoning workers when it suits him.
70 Percent Public Approval and a Level Playing Field
Norcross next addressed the current status of the labor movement. Approximately 70 percent of Americans now support unions, he said. That level of support has not existed in decades. The reason, he said, is not that the labor movement has done a better job spreading its message. The reality of what average Americans experience every day has made the case for a level playing field impossible to ignore, he said.
A minimum wage that has not increased in nearly 20 years. The first trillionaire in American history. Ice cream cones for $18.95, no tip. A gallon of gas at $4.50. The gap between what work produces and what workers receive has become visible and daily. And more and more employers are anti-union because collective bargaining would level that playing field. That is the point of the opposition: not ideology, but economics.
Norcross concluded with a Labor Day message that was a mix of both frustration and hope. The labor movement's ask has always been simple. Workers want a chance to work hard and make it. They want a fighting chance that doesn’t require working 10 to 15 hours every day just to pay the bills.
Labor creates all wealth, Norcross said at the close of the conversation. Not the trillionaires. We do.
More information on Representative Norcross is available at norcross.house.gov. More information on the Congressional Labor Caucus is available at laborcaucus.house.gov.
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