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Union Station: December 14, 2018
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On June 27, the Supreme Court issued its 5-4 ruling in Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (Janus). The court ruled that public sector unions cannot require non-member employees to pay agency fees to cover the costs of non-political union activities. For our final issue of 2018, we take a look back at the year's legislative activity.
Noteworthy bills enacted in 2018
Below is a select list of noteworthy bills enacted in 2018. For a complete list of all bills tracked in 2018, please click here.
- California SB285: This bill prohibits a public employer from deterring or discouraging public employees from becoming or remaining members of an employee organization. The bill defines a public employer for this purpose to include counties, cities, districts, the state, schools, transit districts, the University of California, and the California State University, among others. The bill grants the Public Employment Relations Board jurisdiction over violations of its provisions.
- California SB1085: This bill requires public employers to grant leaves of absence without loss of pay or benefits to employees who serve as stewards or officers of an employee organization.
- California SB846: This bill protects public employers from liability for any legal claims involving agency fees paid to unions before June 27, 2018. This bill also denies standing to current or former employees pursuing such claims. The bill's provisions apply to any pending litigation.
- Connecticut HB05177: This bill requires a public agency, upon receiving a permissible request for public employee personnel files, to first disclose the requested information to the person making the request and then to notify the employee concerned and the employee's collective bargaining agent.
- Hawaii HB1725: This bill requires public employees in collective bargaining units to provide written notification to the exclusive representative to discontinue payroll assignments within a certain time period. The bill requires the exclusive representative to forward the notification to the employer within 10 business days of receipt.
- Maryland HB811: This bill requires certain public school employers to provide an exclusive representative with access to new employee processing. The bill also requires the public school employer to provide the exclusive representative with certain information about a new employee within 30 days of the date of hire or by the first pay period after the date of hire.
- Maryland SB819: Similar to Maryland HB811 (described above), this bill requires certain public school employers to provide an exclusive representative with access to new employee processing. The bill also requires the public school employer to provide the exclusive representative with certain information about a new employee within 30 days of the date of hire or by the first pay period after the date of hire.
- New Jersey A3686: The bill requires public employers to provide unions with access to members of the negotiation units. The bill specifies that home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, birth dates, employee negotiation units and groupings, and communications between employee organizations and their members, prospective members, and non-members, are not government records and are exempt from the disclosure requirements of state law.
- Rhode Island H7377: This bill authorizes municipal police unions to refrain from representing employees in grievance/arbitration proceedings if those employees were not members of the collective bargaining unit within 90 days of the event precipitating grievance/arbitration proceedings.
- Washington HB2751: Upon written authorization of an employee within the bargaining unit and after certification or recognition of the union, the employer must deduct from the employee's payments the monthly amount of dues certified by the secretary of the union and must transmit the amounts to the treasurer of the union. If a collective bargaining agreement includes a union security provision, the employer must enforce the agreement by deducting from the payments to bargaining unit members the dues required for union membership, or for nonmembers, a fee equivalent to the dues.
The big picture
2019 session preview: In Jan. 2019, legislatures in 47 states will convene. For a complete list of session start and end dates by state, see this article.
Number of relevant bills by state
We tracked 203 pieces of legislation in 2018 dealing with public-sector employee union policy. Twenty-five relevant bills were introduced in Maryland alone -- more than any other state. Rounding out the top five states:
- California with 20
- Illinois and Washington -- 17 each
- Missouri at 11.
On the map below, a darker shade of green indicates a greater number of relevant bills. Click here for a complete list of all the bills we're tracking.
Number of relevant bills by current legislative status
Twenty-nine, or 14.29 percent, of the 203 public-sector union bills we tracked in 2018 became law. A plurality, 44.83 percent, were referred to committee, where they ultimately stalled (though they may carry over into 2019 sessions in some states). Governors vetoed eight bills, 3.94 percent of the total. See the pie chart below for further details.
Number of relevant bills by partisan status of sponsor(s)
Republicans were the exclusive sponsors of 92 (or 45.32 percent) of the 203 public-sector union bills we tracked in 2018. Democrats were the sole sponsors of 88 bills, 43.55 percent of the total. The remainder were sponsored by bipartisan groups or committees. See the pie chart below for full details.
See also
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