Members of some public sector unions will need a greater share of their members to vote to keep their organizations alive, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Friday taking aim at teachers unions.
The bill (SB 1296) will “provide once and for all for the decertification of partisan teacher unions,” DeSantis said before signing the measure at Fort Myers High School.
“This is something people have been wanting to see for a long time. We should not have these entities operating if they do not have support from the people they purport to represent.”
The move was decried by Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar, who called the signing of the bill “yet another entry in a long line of betrayals of working Floridians by Gov. DeSantis in favor of out-of-state, billionaire-backed, special interest groups.”
Two Fort Myers Republicans, Sen. Jonathan Martin and Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka, filed the bill after a teachers union in Lee County prevented the school district from paying bonuses to teachers who volunteered to work in low-performing schools.
“This bill doesn’t end unions. The unions will end themselves when they lose their way and focus more on politics than on representing employees at the bargaining table,” Persons-Mulicka said.
Under the bill, which takes effect July 1, at least 50 percent of the members of a union or prospective bargaining unit must participate in a vote to certify or recertify a union, and 50 percent of them must approve for the union to remain intact.
Currently, only a majority of the members who vote in the certification election are required to start a union or keep it afloat.
Education Commissioner Anastasio Kamoutsas cited a union election of Florida Agricultural & Manufacturing University graduate assistants where three members were enough to recertify the union.
“Unions will now be required to show clear meaningful support from educators,” Kamoutsas said.
He and DeSantis also expressed frustration at unions for delaying raises for teachers in districts across the state. DeSantis also signed another bill (HB 1279) which makes it easier for school districts to pay teachers more to teach in low-performing schools.
While DeSantis directed his derision at teachers unions, the bill he signed increasing the voting requirements for certification affects other public sector unions, such as nurses and other government workers.
Democrats blasted the bill because it targets those unions that typically support their party but it exempted other first responder unions – police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians – which often support Republicans.
“While wealthy special interests might believe they have the power in the halls of the Florida Capitol, Florida’s public sector workers have the power and support in our communities statewide to show them otherwise,” Florida AFL-CIO President Kimberly Holdridge said in a released statement. “We will organize and come back stronger than ever.”
