Nevada’s economic freedom shouldn’t depend on who wins November’s election; governors change but principles shouldn’t. And one principle is non-negotiable: Government belongs to taxpayers, not union bosses.
In 1952, Nevada voters embraced right-to-work. The law protects a simple freedom: No worker should have to join or financially support a union to keep a job. Unions may organize, recruit and advocate. Workers may join or refuse. That’s not anti-union; that’s freedom of choice.
Opponents claim right-to-work weakens bargaining power and lets non-members benefit without paying dues. Businesses must earn their customers. Why shouldn’t unions earn their members? Competition, not coercion, is the American way.
But Nevada faces a second, more dangerous problem: public-sector collective bargaining. Private employers bargain with money earned in a competitive marketplace. They answer to customers, investors and the possibility of failure. Government bargains with taxpayer dollars. When costs climb, citizens pay through taxes, reduced services or debt.
Under NRS Chapter 288, government unions can require public employers to negotiate wages, benefits and working conditions, with certain disputes ultimately decided through binding arbitration. Think about that: Unions negotiate, arbitrators decide, and taxpayers are left paying the bill with little direct say in either.
Consider the stakes. In 2025-2027, Nevada lawmakers approved $109.8 million in funding for salary and benefit enhancements associated with state employee collective bargaining and legislators authorized the spending. But why give compulsory bargaining a privileged route to the public treasury in the first place?
Public employees deserve fair pay and safe workplaces. Union supporters argue that representation can help secure these things. But collective bargaining is not the only way. Transparent pay schedules, merit standards, independent appeals, whistleblower safeguards and enforceable due process can protect employees without handing unions a statutory negotiating monopoly.
There’s another uncomfortable question: What happens when public unions support politicians who later sit across the bargaining table? Even when negotiations are lawful, the potential conflict undermines public confidence. Taxpayers fund both sides of the settlement but have no direct seat at the table.
CALL TO ACTION: Nevada must defend and strengthen its Right-to-Work Law (NRS 613.230-613.300), rejecting every attempt to weaken or repeal these fundamental protections. Then lawmakers must overhaul Chapter 288: End compulsory public-sector bargaining and binding financial arbitration and keep voluntary employee associations and their right to petition government. We should strengthen individual civil-service protections, require public accounting of total compensation and return pay decisions to elected officials through open budgets.
I believe public-sector unions should be prohibited. But at the very least, government unions should have no special authority over taxpayer dollars. Elected officials, not union bosses or arbitrators, must control government spending and answer directly to the taxpayers who foot the bill.
Whoever wins the Governor’s Mansion, those rules must stand. Nevada is not a union treasury with a state attached; it’s a state of free citizens. The taxpayers, not union bosses, must have the final word.
For more information on my Commentary and to see some of my backup research, or if you wonder why I take the position I take, go to www.LyleBrennan.com.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV) “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
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