Senator Bill Cassidy Champions Pro-Worker Policies

Last month, United States Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and his colleagues on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee introduced a package of bills intended to modernize labor law, protect workers’ paychecks and privacy rights, and ensure that workers are empowered to decide whether their union is working for them. Sen. Cassidy explained in a press release that these reforms are necessary to bring 100-year-old labor law up to date to best serve a 21st-century workforce and economy.

• The Worker Reforming Elections for Speedy and Unimpeded Labor Talks (RESULTS) Act would strengthen the integrity of union elections by requiring a secret ballot election and a quorum of at least two-thirds of the bargaining unit to participate in a union election. It also allows workers to decertify their union election with their first collective bargaining agreement and provides a 90-day window every two years during which members may vote on continuing their relationship with their union.
• The NLRB Stability Act requires that the National Labor Relations Board follow federal court precedent by addressing its “non-acquiescence” doctrine, which allows the Board to ignore federal court of appeals rulings. This practice has created instability and uncertainty for workers.
• The Fairness in Filing Act makes it more difficult for unions to file frivolous unfair labor practice charges, which are often used to gain leverage, exert pressure, or extend timelines during negotiation and unionization efforts. The bill would require parties to submit evidence when an unfair labor practice is alleged, that the evidence be shared with all parties, and imposes penalties for filing frivolous unfair labor practice charges.
• Finally, the Union Members Right to Know Act protects workers from subsidizing political speech with which they disagree. It requires unions to clearly and regularly provide workers with a summary of their rights to object to their dues subsidizing union political spending and would require workers to opt-in to their dues being used for nonrepresentational activities.

Sen. Cassidy’s Union Members Right to Know Act and Workers RESULTS Act are of particular interest to those who have followed recent efforts to reform government unions in Louisiana.

The Union Members Right to Know Act ensures that government workers are not required to pay for speech with which they disagree. It’s no secret that the nation’s largest public sector unions give generously to progressive causes and candidates-money that could be spent instead on representing their members. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) spent a combined approximately $40 million on elections in 2023–24, with all but a paltry $51,922 donated to Democratic candidates. Examples of government union political spending close to home are numerous. For example, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and its local affiliates took conflicting positions on Constitutional Amendment 2 on the March 2025 ballot, the St. John Parish Association of Educators encouraged its members to phone bank for Kamala Harris, and United Teachers of New Orleans dismissed the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel as part of an ongoing “struggle and resistance.”

A December 2025 report from the Commonwealth Foundation examined spending by the nation’s four largest public sector unions—NEA, AFT, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The report found that those unions spent a combined $915 million in partisan elections, a staggering 86% of which came from member dues. By contrast, these four unions spent only a combined $642 million for “representational activities.”

Sen. Cassidy’s Workers RESULTS Act is designed to allow workers to decide whether their union is working for them—and not the other way around. Again, government unions in Louisiana provide examples of why this reform is needed. Most of the teachers working in classrooms today in parishes with collective bargaining agreements have never had a say in the union that represents them, or even if they want to be represented by a union. Collective bargaining agreements in Jefferson, Vermilion, and St. Tammany Parishes date back to the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. New teachers in these parishes weren’t even born the last time anyone had an opportunity to say whether they believe their union is doing an adequate job of negotiating for pay, benefits, and working conditions.

The Pelican Institute has championed similar reforms for Louisiana’s public employees. In 2024 and 2025, we advocated for secret ballot elections, paycheck protection, a fairer decertification process, and an  opt-in process. These reforms would have allowed those who deliver public services to preserve their free speech rights and exercise more control over their paychecks.

The Pelican Institute applauds Sen. Cassidy and his colleagues on the HELP committee for these important reforms that protect hardworking government employees and ensure that their union is working to represent them, if they choose to join one.