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Kansas Senate Committee Approves Union Bargaining Bill

Educators wearing red shirts gathered to protest the bill. (Photo by Stephen Koranda)
Educators wearing red shirts gathered to protest the bill. (Photo by Stephen Koranda)

Public employee unions will have limited bargaining rights under a bill passed by a Kansas Senate committee today (THUR). The measure restricts bargaining to just the issue of minimum wages.

The proposal also prevents state and school district workers from having union dues and charitable contributions automatically deducted from their paychecks. Originally, the bill only prevented paycheck deductions for union dues, but it was expanded to stop automatic deductions for anything not related to employment.

Mark Farr is president of the KNEA, the state’s largest teachers union.


“This is nothing more than an attack on working Kansans. This is scheme, a scheme to attack the rights of public employees,” say Farr.

 

Eric Stafford, with the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, says the government shouldn’t be processing optional employee deductions like payments for union dues. 


“What’s the core function of government, should government be facilitating those transactions? We would argue it’s not a core function of government,” says Stafford.

 

The bill will now go to the full Senate for consideration.

 

Stephen Koranda is KPR's Statehouse reporter.