New Orleans Can’t Afford to Pay City Workers for Union Business

The City of New Orleans’ budget woes are well documented. At the end of 2025, the City required a $125 million short term loan from the state to meet payroll through the end of the year.  New Orleans taxpayers rely on city hall to provide services like permitting, pothole filling, and public safety-services that, with few exceptions, they can’t get from anywhere else. With talk of layoffs or furloughs to address the budget crunch, time and taxpayer dollars are precious commodities when it comes to delivering services to the city’s 360,000-plus citizens. 

So, amid a financial crisis, why is the city obligated to pay some of its employees for their time spent in service to a private organization during regular working time? 

That’s because the City’s collective bargaining agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Local 17, requires the city to pay union stewards and other members for release time, or time spent conducting union business during working hours. The contract allows union representatives paid time during the workday to conduct union activities like attending conferences, posting or distributing union literature, or recruiting new members. 

Furthermore, the contract provides for a creation of a labor management committee (LMCs) and allows for department-level LMCs. The LMC meets monthly during work time, and the departmental LMCs can meet at least quarterly during work time. 

Rather than assisting a taxpayer with the necessary paperwork to start a new business, or responding to a citizen’s blight complaint, city hall employees are being paid to do work that benefits AFSCME.

How much is this time costing taxpayers-in dollars and services? We don’t know. 

In response to a public records request, the city stated that it did not have any records on the number of hours worked or compensation paid to city employees engaged in union business while on regular working time pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. 

The Texas Supreme Court found in 2024 that release time provisions in the Austin firefighter’s union collective bargaining agreement violated the Texas Constitution’s Gift Clauses, which prohibit state and local governments from allocating public resources to private purposes. Article 7, Section 14 of Louisiana’s constitution contains a similar prohibition; however, Louisiana courts have not yet addressed this issue. 

While relief through the court system on the release time issue could be years away, the Louisiana legislature can adopt an important public sector union reform much sooner. The legislature is currently considering SB312 by state Senator Kirk Talbot, which would allow government union members to resign their membership and stop paying due at any time.