Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that placed restrictions on public sector unions, drawing cheers from allies and the ire of union representatives and Democratic lawmakers.
One measure in Senate Bill 256 prevents union dues from being taken directly from members’ paychecks. For members to routinely pay union dues, they need to make a separate payment after they get paid.
The bill also decertifies unions if fewer than 60% of eligible employees are members, forcing unions to reapply to be bargaining agents.
Public unions must also make audited financial statements available to all members under the law.
Although the bill is focused on public sector unions, police, corrections and fire unions are exempt from the law.
The bill is part of a wider strategy by Republicans, and Gov. DeSantis in particular, to target public teacher unions, which they feel are being used as political tools and are indoctrinating children with left-wing ideas.
“They’ve been spreading misinformation on things like the book-ban hoax that we have succinctly debunked, but we also want to make sure that teachers, at the end of the day, have money that’s going into their pockets,” Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez said during the signing Tuesday.
The Florida Education Association, which rallied against the bill, categorized the law as a baseless attack on teachers.
“This new law grossly oversteps in trying to silence teachers, staff, professors and most other public employees,” FEA President Andrew Spar said in a statement.
Mr. DeSantis said the bill is aimed at developing more openness among public unions. He pointed out that nothing in the bill stops people from joining a union and that people who want to continue paying dues can; they just have to look at their paycheck first.
Vincent Vernuccio, senior labor policy adviser for Workers for Opportunity, said in a statement as reported by the Tampa Bay Times, “Democracy works, and this is union democracy at its best. With this new law, Gov. DeSantis and state legislators are empowering Florida teachers to chart their own path forward and requiring more transparency from the unions that have the privilege of representing those teachers.”
Florida Democrats were not kind to the bill, calling it a union-busting tactic by the governor.
“We can trust teachers to make their own personal choices in how they spend their hard-earned money, and attempting to silence the groups that advocate for better pay and better working conditions is unconstitutional and undemocratic,” Senate Democratic Minority Leader Lauren Book said Tuesday.
Bills focusing on the elimination of automatic dues deduction have been in front of Florida and other states’ legislatures before but never passed.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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