Mark Mix is right that empowering bureaucrats to impose labor contracts is the wrong way to help workers (“Josh Hawley Chooses Unions Over Workers,” op-ed, Oct. 8). The Faster Labor Contracts Act would require federal arbitrators to dictate private contracts if employers and unions can’t reach agreement within an arbitrary and unrealistic timeframe. The old adage to “measure twice, cut once” is especially relevant for multiyear labor contracts that can cover hundreds of bargaining provisions. Failure to assess the consequences properly ahead of time could result in lost jobs and failed businesses.

I was a witness at the Oct. 8 congressional testimony for the act. It wasn’t lost on any of us that we were meeting during a government shutdown—the result of Congress’s being unable to reach a budgetary agreement by deadline. Yet no one suggested that unelected bureaucrats be given power over the people’s elected representatives to determine taxpayer spending. Why should it be any different for private-sector agreements?

American workers need labor law to reflect today’s dynamic economy. Most of the relevant statues were written 75 years ago for a male-, union- and manufacturing-dominated workforce that no longer exists. The labor force now values flexibility and independence, not one-size-fits-all contracts or Washington control.

Instead of sanctioning compulsion in the form of Sen. Hawley’s bill, Congress might look to such pro-worker modernizations as the National Right to Work Act and Employee Rights Act—both of which would help preserve the freedom, dignity and opportunity that make American work exceptional.