A Win for Worker Freedom in Louisiana! SB312 Awaits Gov. Landry’s Signature

A big win for worker freedom in Louisiana! Senate Bill 312, sponsored by Senator Kirk Talbot and
Representative Mike Melerine, is on its way to Governor Jeff Landry’s desk.

This bill gives public sector workers more control over their paychecks by:

• Allowing union members to resign their union membership and stop paying dues
at any time, rather than only during a limited annual window.
• Submitting their membership resignation to their employer, who can immediately
cease dues payment withholdings.
• Receiving an annual notification of their right to choose whether they want to be
a union member and pay dues.

Why is this bill necessary? For years, teachers in some parishes with collective
bargaining agreements were only able to resign their union membership during narrow
“drop windows” that usually occurred at inconvenient times. Additionally, teachers who
are members of Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) could resign their
membership at any time, but were stuck paying membership dues for the remainder of
the year unless they notified the union that they wished to cancel their payments during
the month of August. Dr. Tia Mills, LAE’s former president, testified in 2025 that the
organization “…is committed to allow members to add and drop as they see fit.” She
also testified in 2025 that the parishes with narrow drop windows had entered
Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) to allow their members to resign at any time.
However, Vermilion Parish’s MOU had not been approved by the school board until April
23, 2026, after the Pelican Institute sent a public records request for the document, and
a year after Dr. Mills’ testimony. SB312 provides protections to public sector workers
when unions are not incentivized to do so, and they’ve demonstrated that their word
can’t be trusted.

Public employee union representatives fought hard against these commonsense
reforms, insisting that they did not want to keep members who were no longer
interested in union membership. If unions are confident that they’re providing a service
their members want at a price they can afford, what harm does SB312 cause? We don’t
need to search very hard for examples of public sector unions from Oregon to New York
refusing to honor resignation requests.

SB312 is a commonsense reform that empowers government workers by giving them
more control over their paychecks. The people we trust to provide valuable public
services should be given the same trust when it comes to their paychecks.