(The Center Square) — The Louisiana Legislature has been battling over public sector union policy in the wake of an evolving political landscape.
David R. Osborne, a senior fellow from the Commonwealth Foundation, told The Center Square that unions were able to take advantage of Louisiana lawmakers’ poor education on union issues.
“[The unions] hit the alarm bells, and many legislators didn’t understand the issue, they ran away from it,” Osborne claims, though he remains optimistic that the next legislative session will be different. “I think some of the more traditional reforms like recertification and paycheck protection are totally on the table in Louisiana.”
The Legislature has taken a recent interest in public sector labor policy, pushing at least nine bills that focused on limiting union authority, all of which failed to pass.
One bill proposed amendments to state laws concerning payroll withholdings for union dues, possibly leaving union funding uncertain. The changes included limiting the authorization period for such withholdings to one year, with an option for renewal, and requiring related reports.
Another bill aimed to establish procedures for certifying collective bargaining representatives, potentially hampering unionization in the public sector.
Perhaps the most significant way in which unions are changing is the increasing accountability to their constituents through recertification.
“Unions all over the place are losing their certification,” Osborne said. “A lot of unions have really never had the internal support to stand for reelection.”
Many states, including Louisiana, have introduced legislation that would require unions to reelect union executives.
“The norm across the country is that public sector employees don’t get to reelect their unions. Once they’re in, and that can be all the way back to the 1970s, they basically hold their certification, or their right to represent a group of workers forever,” Osborne said.
“Recertification would put the onus on the union to reapprove itself and give workers this automatic opportunity to vote their union out if they don’t have support,” Osborne said.
Had the bills passed, Louisiana would have required recertification elections when a union’s membership rate drops below 50%.
A report from the Commonwealth Foundation graded all 50 states on their public sector labor laws on an A+ through F scale. Louisiana received a C ranking, along with Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Utah, and Nevada.
The report focused on the four largest government unions — the American Federation of Teachers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the National Education Association and the Service Employees International Union.
According to the report, union membership has declined by more than 100,000 since 2022 and a total of 320,421 since the 2018 Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 decision.
Those losses represent $106.8 million in annual dues and fees, according to the report.
The Louisiana Governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
