State Rep. Will Wade
Georgia is setting a national example when it comes to protecting jobs and preserving worker rights. In 2024, we passed groundbreaking legislation that puts working Georgians, not union bosses, in the driver’s seat.
Georgia now encourages employers to make sure that any unionization decision is made through a private, secret ballot election. The law pushes back on high-pressure tactics like “card check” campaigns conducted in break rooms or under peer scrutiny. Unfortunately, the big unions still have more dirty tricks up their sleeves to coerce workers and inflate dues-paying union membership at any cost. These reckless and aggressive tactics by the nation’s largest unions ultimately threaten workers’ job security. We should do everything we can to stop this from happening in Georgia.
I’ve long believed that workplace elections should be free from coercion, and workers should be able to decide for themselves, privately, whether they want union representation. Georgia now offers economic development incentives only to companies that commit to that principle. Steps like this are helping preserve worker autonomy and prevent the disastrous outcomes that arise when massive, national unions wield too much power.
Labor negotiations driven by pressure and politics rather than cooperation and long-term economic stability often lead to layoffs and hurt the local economy. A recent Mercatus Center study puts a fine point on this reality. Researchers looked at 147 peer-reviewed academic papers and found that powerful unions, particularly those with monopolistic leverage, may win short-term wage increases, but this often comes at the cost of reduced investment, slower job growth, and diminished long-term opportunity for the very workers they represent.
The study isn’t a broad indictment of all unions. Instead, the researchers note that “downstream job losses and firm decline can be traced not to the collective voice itself but to the statutory monopoly structures that amplify aggressive bargaining tactics and block alternative channels for cooperation.” We’ve seen a recent example of this with UPS, which recently announced 20,000 layoffs and the closure of 73 facilities following their inking of an extravagant Teamsters contract. Whatever short term “wins” the Teamsters garnered at the negotiating table were quickly undone by these layoffs.
You would have to assume, by now, that the big union bosses realize these heavy-handed tactics don’t help workers. Yet, the Teamsters and other large unions show no signs of softening their approach. In one recent example, the Teamsters offered workers $1,000 a week in strike pay, with the condition that workers must also apply for union membership. This is exactly the kind of worker coercion we’ve been fighting against in Georgia. It likely violates the National Labor Relations Act and is ethically dubious, given that it puts financial pressure on workers to become union members.
Now, these big union tactics could be making their way to Georgia. The Teamsters have their eyes set on Amazon and other major employers in our state. They could engage in splashy protest campaigns during peak retail periods like this month’s Prime Day. That approach failed to gain traction during a similar campaign last Christmas. But clearly, union leaders are desperate to grow their membership base, even if it means engaging in these short-sighted protests that often fail.
In Georgia, we have prioritized workers’ autonomy and pushed back against the big unions’ coercive tactics. We cannot afford to give up on the progress that attracted so much investment to our state and kept our unemployment rate below the national average. We have made great strides preventing unions from coercing support from workers, and it’s more important than ever that we keep up the fight.
State Rep. Will Wade is a Republican representing District 9 in northeast Georgia
