Op-Ed: Collective bargaining is a bad deal for New Orleans taxpayers
The New Orleans City Council may soon consider an ordinance intended to recognize city workers’ right to collectively bargain. Though it’s being sold as a benefit for workers, New Orleans taxpayers will pay the price for the costly consequences that will result.
The proposed ordinance would establish city workers’ organizing rights, set up a process for collective bargaining, and require the council to hire a labor relations administrator as a go-between for workers and the city. Proponents believe that this step is necessary to improve morale, help with recruiting, and maintain city services. However, there are countless examples from other cities that illustrate how public sector unions do the opposite.
Collective bargaining agreements are typically negotiated in secret and remain in effect for years at a time. They generally govern pay, working conditions, and set rules that typically retain workers based on seniority rather than merit. And they come with a high price. Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia recently voted to allow collective bargaining, and taxpayers will be on the hook for $3.3 million per year in new administrative positions. That’s $3.3 million that can’t be used for higher teacher pay, new books, or computer upgrades. In New Orleans, a city in poor fiscal health, that would mean cuts to services or tax increases.
Collective bargaining agreements also tie the hands of elected officials, harming the taxpayers they represent. In his recent book, NOT Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Sector Unions, Philip K. Howard explains that public sector unions by their nature require elected officials to cede their policymaking authority to the union. In the event of a budget crisis, natural disaster, or pandemic, lawmakers can’t make prudent decisions regarding pay or layoffs because they are bound by the CBA. If there’s a dispute, union contracts often require it to be resolved by an unelected arbitrator, rather than a politically accountable judge. On top of that, unions aggressively campaign to have their members elected to office so that they are represented on both sides of the bargaining table.
Gains for union members often come at the expense of residents’ quality of life. In Philadelphia, Glitter, a company started by entrepreneurs to deal with the city’s street litter problem, was forced to cease operations after the city’s sanitation workers union filed a grievance. The city partnered with Glitter to collect street litter, sweep, report illegal dumping, and bag trash for collection in exchange for a small monthly fee. No more. The union alleged that the city violated its union contract by allowing a for-profit business to charge for work performed by non-union employees. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that residents are literally left holding the bag — bags of garbage they collect themselves after losing Glitter’s services for their neighborhoods. New Orleans residents can relate. Who can forget the sight or smell of piles of garbage stacked in the streets for weeks after Hurricane Ida, rotting under the late summer sun? A collective bargaining agreement could make emergency response far worse if the city is prohibited from negotiating contracts with certain businesses.
New Orleanians have plenty of legitimate gripes—from safety to police officer response time, to garbage collection to water bills—but we have seen that time and again, unionization and collective bargaining for public employees can only make things worse for taxpayers. The City Council should reject this union power grab and protect the city — and its residents.
Sarah Harbison is general counsel at the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. She is a taxpayer in New Orleans, Louisiana.
