Louisiana is one of 13 states to receive a C grade for the impact of its labor laws on taxpayers and government workers, according to a recent report from Pennsylvania-based think tank Commonwealth Foundation.
The report claims to be a first-of-its-kind 50-state public sector labor report examining and comparing labor laws in each state. The foundation says that while some states have become right-to-work states in recent years, others have limited the scope of collective bargaining, increased the transparency of union contract negotiations and created stronger protections for individual workers who do not want to be union members.
“For the first time since states enacted public sector collective bargaining laws in the mid-to-late twentieth century, right-to-work states outnumber forced-union states 26 to 24,” the foundation says. “The reforms are even more remarkable given the largely inert nature of public sector labor law.”
States earning a C grade tend to allow public sector collective bargaining, have union-friendly statutory provisions and have vague laws that allow unions to gain privileges through collective bargaining agreements, the foundation says.
“In these states, the law ends up protecting only some or few taxpayers’ and individual workers’ rights,” the report says. “Interestingly, both right-to-work and forced-union states fall into this category, highlighting the importance of creating explicit, defined protections in state law for both taxpayers and workers.”
The foundation says Louisiana is a right-to-work state that allows collective bargaining for government workers, and allows unions to have a right to the exclusive representation of workers. However, it does not have union membership opt-out windows, open union contract negotiations to the public and it does not allow for paycheck protection, among other things.
The foundation’s researchers evaluated states according to 11 measures that fall into two categories: the impact on taxpayers and the impact on public employees.
