An appeals court Tuesday put on hold a lawsuit that Florida filed against the federal government, after the Trump administration reversed course on a controversial 2023 state law that placed restrictions on public-employee unions.
The law included a series of restrictions, including preventing most public employees from having dues deducted from their paychecks and requiring unions to be recertified as bargaining agents if fewer than 60% of eligible employees pay dues.
The lawsuit deals with interplay between the state law (SB 256) and a longstanding federal law designed to ensure that transit workers’ collective-bargaining rights are protected before federal transit money is provided to local agencies.
The U.S. Department of Labor in the Biden administration said parts of the state law, such as the dues-deduction change, interfered with workers’ collective bargaining rights. As a result, it required local transit agencies to receive waivers from the state law to obtain federal money.
But in a May 29 letter, the Department of Labor — now part of the Trump administration — said it had reconsidered the issues and that “SB 256 does not impermissibly impact the collective bargaining rights and benefits of the transit workers” in conflict with the federal law.
“The department acknowledges that the departure from its prior views may unsettle the expectations of interested parties,” the May 29 letter said. “This reconsideration will lead to the expiration of the waivers exempting unions representing transit workers in Florida from SB 256’s requirements. Unions and their members will have to implement alternatives to payroll dues deductions. Unions will need to ensure their registration renewal applications are accurate and in compliance with Florida’s laws. Additionally, if they do not meet the 60% threshold of dues paying members when they submit their renewal application to PERC (the state Public Employees Relations Commission), then within 30 days of submitting that application unions also must submit a petition for recertification.”
Then-Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration in October 2023, alleging that the federal law aimed at protecting collective-bargaining rights was unconstitutional. Also, the lawsuit alleged that the Department of Labor had violated another law known as the Administrative Procedure Act because its determination about the state law harming collective bargaining was “arbitrary and capricious.”
U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian last year rejected the lawsuit, including the allegations about the Administrative Procedure Act.
“(A) reading of the statute’s plain text reflects that Congress gave the DOL (the Department of Labor) the authority to construe (the federal law) to determine whether provisions that affect employee collective bargaining rights are ‘fair and equitable,’” Damian wrote. “The state offers no authority to support a finding that the DOL violated the APA (Administrative Procedure Act) where the DOL did what Congress said it could do.”
Moody, who is now a U.S. senator, appealed Damian’s ruling to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case has remained pending. But after the May 29 letter, attorneys asked the appeals court to hold the case in “abeyance to allow (the parties) to assess the effect of the Department of Labor’s action on the issues in this appeal.”
Tuesday’s order said the case will be held in abeyance for 30 days.
