LABOR UNIONS
the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the University of North Florida and the University of West Florida.
Municipal workers in the cities of Oakland Park, High Springs, Naples, Jacksonville, Sebring, Bradenton and other jurisdictions have already seen their unions fully decertified by the state.
Four separate Association of Federal State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) bargaining units representing more than 42,000 State of Florida employees have been fully decertified.
Those bargaining units were at an impasse with the state government while trying to negotiate the next contract, Florida Senate records show. With the union fully decertified, the master contract between workers and the state has “no force and effect,” and no one has the authority to negotiate any new contract.
“All of these publicsector servants — one of the draws to bring them into these jobs is because they have this security of a collective bargaining agreement,” said Templin. “When that’s gone, they’re gone. And when they’re gone, it’s not going to take long for average Floridians to feel it.”
The state has for years been operating with a crisis of job vacancies and struggling job recruitment efforts. Some state agencies were operating with as many as 1 in 4 jobs left unfilled last year, according to a Tampa Bay Times report.
Under the new law, public sector unions — with the exception of law enforcement, firefighter and correctional officer unions — must meet the threshold of having at least 60% of members pay dues to stay active.
None of the cities, schools or departments listed above hit that threshold when required documents were filed with state.
If the threshold is not met, the unions have one month to collect “interest card” signatures from at least 30% of members, saying they would like to continue being represented by the union. If the signatures are collected and accepted by the Florida Public Employee Relations Commission, a new union election will have to be held to show a majority of eligible members still want to be represented by the union.
Unions that do not submit the 30% signatures or that fail the ensuing election lose their collective bargaining rights.
Perhaps most significant, the law bans the state and local governments from automatically deducting union dues from paychecks, a standard practice often directly written into union contracts.
The law amounts to a double-whammy: It made it more difficult for members to pay dues while requiring more members to do so.
Affected cities and counties where units of municipal workers are potentially losing their right to collectively bargain include: Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Surfside, Avon Park,
North Port and Williston. Mechanics at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office are facing the same crossroads.
More than 700 municipal
workers in the large South Florida city of Hialeah are pushing to keep their union alive, potentially affecting jobs such as accountants, building inspectors, electricians, custodial workers, police radio dispatchers and more. Only 20% of eligible Hialeah workers were paying dues when a November filing was sent to the state.
TEACHERS’ UNIONS AMONG THE MOST AFFECTED
Teachers unions are among the groups most affected by the fallout of the law. At least eight county teachers unions in Florida have failed to collect union dues from at least 60% of members, instantly throwing them into an uncertain future.
The teachers union for Miami-Dade County — United Teachers of Dade — was the very first public-sector union recognized in the state in 1974, a history it bears with the state certification number 001. The union worked hard to increase its membership to comply with the new law but fell short. Now, for the first time in its history, the union is forced to fight for its life, as just over 56% of more than 23,000 eligible members paid dues, according to the union’s filing.
In January, the union handed in the recertification forms and is awaiting a new union election date.
“I feel great about what we’ve accomplished. But also it’s bittersweet. Because why don’t they want us to have rights? The democracy seems to be slipping away out of Florida,” union member and school social worker Ruth Doriscar told WLRN. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Other large teachers unions are somewhere in the decertification process. Seminole County, for example, got only 52% of its 4,547 members to pay dues, a majority but short of a supermajority.
In St. Johns County, nearly 56% of its 3,490 members paid dues, casting into doubt the union’s future. In Escambia County, the home of Pensacola and the population center of the Florida Panhandle, only 51.5% of 2,656 paid dues.
Just last year, all a teachers union had to do was meet the threshold of 50% to stay active, a reality that was put in place only for teachers unions in 2018. Almost all teachers unions were able to stay intact under the 50% threshold, with the exception of Jefferson County, whose union was decertified and dissolved amid a state takeover of its public education system.
The 2023 law raised the bar to 60% and applied it to many other publicsector unions.
Through organizing and reallocating resources to sign members up for new methods of dues payments, some counties were able to get their numbers up significantly, enough to be safe at least until next year, when the process will be repeated.
Bay County went from 54% to 61% of 1,601 members paying dues, clearing the hurdle. DeSoto went from nearly 53% to 62%, safe for now.
Manatee County in the Gulf Coast went from 53% to nearly 73% of members paying dues. The union represents more than 2,800 employees.
“Our folks were amazing. It was really incredible how our rank and file people stepped up. I was very, very proud of what our folks did,” said Pat Barber, the longtime president of the Manatee Education Association.
The union’s contract with the school district turned 50 this year, Barber noted, and this was the first time the union had to fight to stay alive. Even though the Manatee
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LAST YEAR WAS THE WORST I’VE EVER SEEN. I’VE BEEN INVOLVED IN POLITICS SINCE 1980, IN ONE FORM OR ANOTHER. IT USED TO BE THEY’D HIDE STUFF FROM YOU, THEY DO IT BEHIND YOUR BACK, THEY DO IT UNDER THE TABLE. THEY DON’T EVEN GIVE A DAMN ANYMORE. THEY’RE JUST RIGHT OUT THERE IN THE SUNSHINE, MAN.
Nelson ‘Lanny’ Mathis Jr., a business manager of the IBEW union who has been a member of Local 1205 in Ocala for over four decades