Republicans in the Florida House passed a bill Wednesday aimed at reducing membership in public-sector unions and weakening organized labor’s political clout, delivering the controversial legislation to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for his signature.
Progressive lawmakers and labor groups have blasted the legislation as a political power grab meant to kneecap teachers unions and other labor groups that tend to support the Democratic Party. The bill would make it harder for unions representing government employees to collect dues and make it easier for the state to “decertify” them and nullify their contracts.
In a clear indicator of the bill’s political intentions, Republicans added a carveout so that the anti-labor measures would not apply to unions representing cops, firefighters or corrections officers — unions that are more likely to support GOP candidates and policies.
Republicans hold solid majorities in both the state House and Senate. A version of the same anti-union legislation passed the Florida Senate last month, despite several Republican state senators joining their Democratic colleagues to vote against it.
DeSantis has publicly supported the legislation as it relates to teachers unions, but has not said whether he believes it should apply to other public-sector unions or exclude the unions representing cops, firefighters and corrections officers. A spokesperson for the governor previously told HuffPost he would not weigh in until he received a final version approved by both chambers.
“The governor will decide on the merits of the bill in final form if and when it passes and is delivered to the governor’s office,” the spokesperson said.
The legislation, known as S.B. 256, forbids public-sector unions from deducting dues directly from workers’ paychecks, which is how most unions receive their funding. The ban would force them to set up new dues-payment mechanisms, like ACH transfers from workers’ bank accounts, adding a new administrative hurdle.
Another provision would require that at least 60% of a bargaining unit be dues-paying members, or else the union would have to reapply for certification with the state. That way, if the union lost members due to the paycheck measure, it could possibly nullify the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the employer.
The legislation would also force local unions to conduct an annual audit. Several lawmakers, including at least one Republican, argued that the audit would be too cumbersome and expensive for small unions that don’t represent many workers.
Labor officials said the legislation was meant to grease DeSantis’ run for president and weaken a line of defense — teachers unions — against the governor’s right-wing “anti-woke” education agenda.
“The goal of the bill is to eliminate collective bargaining for public-sector workers who the governor doesn’t like,” Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy at the Florida AFL-CIO labor federation, told HuffPost ahead of the House vote. “This is another in a very long line of policies being advanced solely for the governor’s run for the White House.”
Proponents of the legislation have cast it as “paycheck protection” for workers against greedy unions. However, that stance has made it harder to explain why cops and firefighters, whom the backers described as heroes, should be undeserving of the same protections that teachers and sanitation workers would receive.
Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate, tried to explain the logic during questioning from a Senate colleague during a committee hearing. Ingoglia said cops and firefighters “put their lives on the line” every day.
“[I]f you’re getting rid of payroll deduction, then you’re forcing a face-to-face conversation with the employees and their union representatives,” Ingoglia said. “I would have a hard time telling law enforcement who worked an overnight from 12 to 8 that she or he would have to not get any sleep and meet their union representative at 11 a.m. to give them their check.”
This is not the first time Republican lawmakers have tried to undermine public-sector unions while protecting the unions they tend to like. When Wisconsin Republicans enacted the infamous anti-union package known as Act 10 under then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2011, they largely shielded the unions representing police and firefighters.