New teachers’ union rules spark rise in membership

A new state law criticized as a union-busting move has boosted membership in teachers unions in Central Florida and across the state, union leaders say.

It also has prompted a lawsuit by the Florida Education Association. The statewide teachers union, in a challenge filed last week, argued the new law violates Florida’s constitution and unfairly targets public school teachers.

State lawmakers who passed the law this spring, however, say there is nothing wrong with the new legislation and doubt the union lawsuit will be successful.

The law, which went into effect last week, mandates that membership in teachers unions must be at least 50 percent of a district’s teaching staff or the union could be disbanded. The new membership rules apply

only to teachers unions, not unions for other public employees.

“It’s so blatantly obvious they’re trying to take down public education,” said Wendy Doromal, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association.

Membership in her union has climbed since the law’s passage from about 46 percent to nearly 55 percent, she said. Teachers unions in Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties also say more teachers have joined, and they, too, are now above the the required threshold.

“In actuality, the bill helped us,” said Sue Carson, president of the Seminole Education Association, where membership has climbed from 48 percent to 52 percent of teachers.

Statewide, 13 local unions have membership below 50 percent, but overall most have seen more teachers join since the law passed, said Joanne McCall, president of the statewide union.

Rep. Scott Plakon, R-Longwood, who sponsored the measure, said the teachers unions seem to be arguing conflicting points, saying the law was damaging and needed to be halted by a court but also that it had increased membership.

Plakon said he pushed for the new rules — which he first tried and failed to get passed in 2011 — because he’d heard some teachers unions had very low membership for years, even decades. In his view, that means they might not be doing a good job advocating for their members. Teachers, Plakon added, might want another group to bargain salaries and benefits for them with the local school board.

“If they can’t get a majority paying dues, I’d question the representation,” Plakon said. “If teachers want unions, then it would be easy to get over 50 percent.”

But union leaders said teachers not joining a union isn’t a sign they are unhappy with their representation. Some worry about the cost of dues — from about $600 to nearly $700 a year in Central Florida — and some are just overwhelmed with work and too busy, they said. Others know the unions push for better pay on their behalf, even if they don’t join.

Diane Phillips, an English teacher at Cocoa High School in Brevard County, said cost is part of the reason she hasn’t joined. She’s a widowed mother and said her salary hasn’t kept pace with her expenses. “I can’t even afford to take the three of us out to Steak ’n Shake,” she said during a telephone call with reporters about the union lawsuit.

Phillips is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “Non-union doesn’t mean anti-union,” she said. “We need our unions.”

Initially, Plakon’s bill targeted, and drew opposition from, other public employee unions but left out those that represent police, firefighters and correctional workers. He said that was because of the distinctive, and dangerous, nature of their work, and because their unions enjoy strong representation. The Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Lodge 25, for example, represents 97 percent of the officers at the Orlando Police Department, said Shawn Dunlap, the union president.

Plakon’s bill passed the House but not the Senate early this year. Then a stripped-down version — one that applied only to teachers unions — was merged into the multi-pronged education bill HB 7055. That passed the full Legislature and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott in the spring.

The new teacher union rules are similar to those in Wisconsin’s controversial 2011 law that imposed strict limitations on that state’s teachers unions.

Plakon said a federal court ruling that stemmed from a challenge to the Wisconsin law gave the green light to states treating public safety unions differently than teachers unions — and likely means the Florida lawsuit won’t be successful.

In that 2013 ruling, a federal appeals court in Chicago said Wisconsin had not violated the Constitution with its new law. “Distinguishing between public safety union and general employee unions maybe have been a poor choice, but is is not unconstitutional,” that court wrote.

Florida’s legal landscape, however, is different in key ways from Wisconsin's when it comes to the rights of employees to bargain, said Ronald Meyer, the attorney for the statewide teachers union, in an email.

For that reason, the ruling from the federal court about the Wisconsin law should not stop Florida’s union from successfully challenging the new state law as violating the Florida Constitution, Meyer said.

The lawsuit argues the law violates the state constitution by “logrolling” unrelated issues into one sweeping bill; by wrongly treating teachers differently than other public employees; by interfering with teachers’ rights to collectively bargain salaries and benefits; and by interfering with teachers’ rights not to join, or financially support, a union. The lawsuit says that under the new rules non-union teachers could be “compelled and coerced” to join, despite Florida’s “right-towork” status, in order to ensure the union survives as their bargaining unit.

“It’s disconcerting that they would pass a law that targets teacher unions only, and not any of the public sector union,” said Stuart Klatte, president of the Lake County Education Association, where membership is now nearly 60 percent. “There’s no need for it.”

Sen. Bill Galvano, the Bradenton Republican who will be the next president of the Florida Senate downplayed the union challenge, noting it has sued the state over other education laws in recent years and hasn’t persuaded courts to take its side.

“I don’t think the suit will be successful,” he said.