At the capital: AB182 contains a host of needed labor reforms

Hello, I’m Victor Joecks with the Nevada Policy Research Institute, here in Carson City.

Recently, I told you about some common-sense labor reforms proposed by Senators Greg Brower and James Settelmeyer and Pete Goicoechea’s Government Affairs Committee.

But there are also some excellent labor reforms in the Assembly, highlighted by Assembly Bill 182.

Proposed by Assemblyman Randy Kirner, AB182 would enact a number of reforms including prohibiting government entities from collecting dues for union organizations, prohibiting governments from paying union employees to work for their union, excluding management and supervisory employees from collective bargaining and eliminating “evergreen” clauses and mandatory binding arbitration.

There’s so much great stuff in this bill that it would take too long to detail it all, so I want to focus on just the first 2 provisions in AB182.

AB182 would prohibit government agencies from deducting union dues from employee paychecks. Why should you and I pay for the government to collect dues for a private organization? That’s just common sense. I wonder how upset the unions will be.

AB182 would also prohibit government agencies from using tax dollars to pay union members to work for the union. Called union leave time, Southern Nevada governments spent over $4.6 million in 2012 paying union members to work for their union, and yes, that’s as outrageous as it sounds.

Which is why union officials will be fighting AB182 tooth and nail. They don’t want to lose millions in taxpayer subsidies.

It’s time for taxpayers, though, to get a better deal.

If you’d like to contact Assemblyman Kirner, and thank him for his leadership on this issue, his office number is 775-684-8848, and his email is Randy.Kirner@asm.state.nv.us.

Victor Joecks is Executive Vice President at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan, free market think tank.