A teachers’ union is a labor union (an organized group of employees) that represents teachers or educators in contract negotiations (for salaries, tenure, paid time off, and other terms of employment) with schools or school districts. Teachers’ unions are said to engage in collective bargaining—bargaining or negotiating on behalf of all teachers—rather than individual teachers negotiating their own employment terms.

The rights of workers to form unions, strike, bargain collectively, and engage in other work-related activities are provided by the federal statute known as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA). The NLRA also prohibits unions from trying to force workers to join a union and prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who exercise their union rights.

The NLRA supersedes many state laws but it does not apply to employees in the public sector—including public school teachers. Some states have laws that prohibit collective bargaining for public employees (Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia) and many states have laws that make it illegal for public employees to strike.

In Louisiana (LA), teachers' unions operate within the context of state statutes that govern public sector labor relations, as the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA) does not apply to public school teachers. Louisiana does not have a comprehensive collective bargaining law for public school teachers. While teachers can join professional associations or unions, these organizations do not have the same collective bargaining rights as private sector unions. Louisiana law does not grant public school teachers the right to strike, and there are no provisions for binding arbitration. This means that while teachers' unions can exist and advocate for educators, their ability to negotiate contracts and engage in traditional labor actions like strikes is limited compared to their counterparts in the private sector or in states with more robust public sector labor laws.