The Florida state legislature approved a measure on Wednesday that would rein in some public-sector unions in the state by changing how union dues and fees are collected and limiting where unions can promote their efforts.
The state House passed the Employee Organizations Representing Public Employees Bill in 72-44 vote on Wednesday, sending the bill to governor Ron DeSantis’s desk for final approval.
The measure was one of several proposals included in DeSantis’s “Paycheck Protection” plan for teachers that he unveiled in January.
The proposed law would ban automatic payroll deductions for public-employee union dues. Public employees who join a union would also be required to sign a form acknowledging that Florida is a right-to-work state.
Unions would be required to notify members every year of their membership costs and union members would not be allowed to distribute union literature at work. Additionally, union officials would be prohibited from performing union business during their working hours at their taxpayer-funded jobs.
The bill would also require unions to represent at least 60 percent of the employees eligible for representation. Unions that fail to meet the threshold would be decertified and would have to petition the Public Employees Relation Commission (PERC) for recertification.
Unions would also be required to submit audited financial reports to the state yearly and to include an annual audited financial statement in its registration renewal application. The bill would also lay out salary restrictions that would ensure that no union leader could be paid more than the union’s highest-paid member.
“One of the ideas here is to make sure that the union members are getting the best possible union representation as possible,” said Florida state senator Blaise Ingoglia, who introduced the bill back in February. The state senator suggested the provision to ban automatic deductions will promote face-to-face conversations between members and their union representatives.
Police, fire and corrections unions are exempted from the bill. Pressed on that exemption by Florida Representative Ashley Gantt, a Democrat, state Representative Dean Black said: “We treat public safety differently. They protect us.”
President of the Florida Education Association Andrew Spar claimed the bill is “insulting to teachers and staff in the state of Florida, basically telling them that they don’t know better and someone big government has to watch out over them.”
The first-of-its-kind law could have far-reaching consequences if other states follow suit, as was the case with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.