Arkansas teachers lost more employment protections with the final passage of the Arkansas LEARNS Act. But before this bill was even filed, teachers here already had some of the weakest union bargaining rights in the nation. How did it come to this?

The most recent law to contribute to this was Act 612 of 2021. In short, it prohibits public employers from recognizing a labor union or public employee association as their bargaining agent. The law also prohibits the employers from collectively bargaining or entering any collective-bargaining contract with a labor union or other public employee association.

Download our brief analysis of how Act 612 came to be to learn more.