Bills making their way through the Florida Legislature would require employee unions in the state to maintain a 60 percent of organization membership in order to keep its certification.
The president of the Osceola County Educators Association, said it’s a way to “come after the union.”
“Again,” Lare Allen said. “The ruling doesn’t pertain to police, fire or corrections. But it does to teachers.”
Senate Bill 256, already passed in the Senate, was sponsored by Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, one of a number of his bills that limit the local rule of city and county municipal boards.
SB 256 also establishes that an employee can revoke his or her union membership at any time, and that those whose employers deduct union dues from their paychecks can have that stopped within 30 days by requesting it in writing. It effectively prohibits unions from deducting dues from members’ paychecks, a common collection method.
It also establishes the decertification of union-type organizations that intentionally misrepresent membership to meet the 60 percent threshold.
House Bill 1445, too, includes that, “An employee organization that had less than 60 percent of the employees eligible for representation in the bargaining unit pay dues during its last registration period must petition the commission for recertification … one month after the date on which the employee organization applies for renewal of registration.”
“You can’t listen to what the majority of the union members want unless there are more union members involved in their process,” Ingoglia said about the bill.
But, language in these bill notes that the 60 percent rule does not pertain to unions for police, firefighters or correctional officers.
Allen said the percentage of county instructional staff who are union members is in the 50s, with support staff membership slightly below that. He said he wonders why the figure changed from 50 to 60 percent.
“You don’t get 60 percent of eligible voters to turn out for an election,” he said. “And it will cost the state money to verify our membership once we do grow it. There will be a big effort (to increase).”
The Florida Education Association is working with local union chapters to establish e-dues through Plaid, an online payment system like Venmo.
