Taxpayers have every right to expect that when they pay unionized teachers, firefighters, and social workers a full salary with benefits, those public sector workers will then teach, fight fires, and provide social services. But thanks to a practice known as “release time,” unionized government workers fail to deliver.

Instead of working to serve the public, thousands of unionized employees work for their union on the taxpayers’ dime, recruiting new union members, lobbying the government that employs them, and working to elect Democratic politicians.

Some “release time” employees are paid by the taxpayers to work for a union full time, meaning even if they are on the payroll as public school teachers, they spend not a second in the classroom teaching children.

Why do local governments agree to pay staff a full-time salary to work for a union to extract as much money as possible from the local government while fighting to make sure union members work as little as possible? It’s because clauses are written into the collective bargaining contracts unions sign with local governments. The practice has become more widespread since the Supreme Court’s 2018 Janus v. AFSCME decision.

The court held that it was a violation of a government union employee’s First Amendment rights for a government union to force a government union employee to pay union dues to a union. Given the choice of contributing to government unions or not, many union employees chose not to, making union officials a lot poorer. 

Government unions then came up with “release time” to get around Janus. Instead of using government union monopoly power to force government employees to fund union activities, unions would force taxpayers to pay union officials’ salaries directly. It is not clear how widespread “release time” is, but a Goldwater Institute study documented at least 400,000 hours of annual “release time” in government union contracts from 44 jurisdictions.

One of the worst offenders was Phoenix, which allowed 67,511 hours of paid union release a year at a cost to taxpayers of $3.7 million. This included four full-time employees paid to work exclusively for a union.

The Goldwater Institute sued Phoenix on behalf of taxpayers, and last month, the Arizona Supreme Court sided against the unions, holding that “release time” violates the Arizona Constitution’s “gift clause,” which forbids giving public resources to private entities.

Most states have similar “gift clauses” in their constitutions, and taxpayer suits against “release time” are underway in New Jersey and Texas. Even if a state does not have a gift clause, “release time” can be fought legislatively by banning the inclusion of such provisions from government union contracts.

Ideally, government unions would not exist at all. That was the opinion of no less an advocate of labor than President Franklin Roosevelt, who said in 1937, “All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”

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“The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations,” he continued.

Someday, we may be able to heed Roosevelt and get rid of government unions. Till then, ending “release time” is a step in the right direction.