Is a Bayou State Breakthrough Imminent?
Three measures that are pending in the state Senate — S.B.263, S.B.264 and S.B.299 — would protect all state and local public workers from union domination and for that reason are less vulnerable to potential Big Labor court challenges as well as preferable on policy grounds.
But the enactment of two other measures now awaiting action in the state House of Representatives — H.B.572 and H.B.712 — would still be a significant step in the right direction, even though these measures allow some government union bosses to retain their monopoly bargaining privileges. […]
In the words of the unanimous 1969 U.S. District Court for North Carolina ruling in Atkins v. City of Charlotte:
“[T]o the extent that public employees gain power through recognition of [monopolistic] collective bargaining, other interest groups with a right to a voice in the running of government may be left out of vital political decisions.”
One important example of what the Atkins court was concerned about is how school officials should make difficult personnel decisions when, due to a recession, declining enrollment, or some other reason, layoffs must occur.
In such situations, parents and taxpayers in general overwhelmingly agree that the jobs of outstanding teachers and teachers who specialize in especially demanding subject areas like physics, chemistry, and advanced math should be protected, even if such teachers have relatively little seniority.
In sharp contrast, teacher union bosses almost always insist that, when layoffs occur, they must be made exclusively on the basis of seniority, regardless of how effective the laid-off low-seniority teachers are, or how hard they will be to replace. And when the monopoly-bargaining regime is entrenched in K-12 schools, it is virtually inevitable that the wishes of the teacher union hierarchy will prevail over the public interest.
NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK COMMITTEE
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