What Teachers’ Unions Do for Teachers When Collective Bargaining is Prohibited

Our research examines the relationship between teachers’ unions, teacher compensation, employment conditions, and turnover in Southern US states that prohibit the collective bargaining of public school teachers. We assess union strength by meet-and-confer status and the teacher union density of districts and estimate union impact using propensity score matching. We find that teachers’ unions are positively associated with teacher compensation and employment conditions, even in the absence of collective bargaining. Districts with strong unions have higher dismissals of nontenured teachers for poor performance and a lower attrition rate of qualified teachers, compared to districts with weak unions. This study shows that teachers’ unions in the United States still organize without formal labor-management institutions and make a significant impact on teachers’ work lives, even in a hostile legal environment toward unions.