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Committee advances bill barring government contracts from requiring employee union membership consideration; passes 8-3
Summary
Senate Bill 405, sponsored by Senator Rogers, aims to bar governmental entities from requiring or considering the union status of a private operator’s employees when contracting to manage or lease publicly owned assets.
Senator Rogers presented Senate Bill 405 and an amendment that the sponsor said “clarifies what the legislation does.” The amendment's language specifies that when a governmental entity contracts with a private entity to manage or lease an asset owned by the governmental entity, “the governmental entity may not require or consider as a provision of the contract or condition of entering into a contract that the employees of the private entity are members or nonmembers of the labor organization.”
Labor representatives opposed the bill as unnecessary and duplicative, while business and small-business advocates supported it. Neil Gath, representing the Indiana AFL-CIO, told the committee that the bill “creates a new chapter which seeks to limit union membership, and we take the position that it's unnecessary and duplicative because both Indiana law and federal law already do so,” citing Indiana’s right-to-work statute and the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision as existing limitations on compelled union membership or fees.
Small-business advocates and construction-industry representatives said the bill protects access to government contracts for smaller operators. Natalie Robinson, state director of the NFIB, testified in support and said the measure would help smaller companies by removing “mandates for these engagements” that can be administratively and financially burdensome. Matt Bell of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Indiana also testified in favor, saying the bill “promotes a fair and level playing field” and “simply states that a government cannot compel a lessee to take a position one way or the other.”
Senator Rogers asked the committee to adopt Amendment No. 1 to clarify intent; the committee took that amendment by consent. Committee members then moved to pass the bill as amended. The roll call recorded the motion’s approval by an 8–3 vote.
Action recorded: Amendment No. 1 (clearing language about contractual restrictions on consideration of employees’ union status) taken by consent; motion to pass as amended approved 8–3.
The transcript records both the sponsor’s explanation of the amendment and directly quoted remarks from labor and business witnesses, but does not provide the bill’s full text in the record shown here.
