The new proposal has largely fallen under the radar over the course of the first few weeks of Florida’s 60-day legislative session, which kicked off earlier this month, although it appears it’s being fast-tracked for passage.
Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) and Rep. Dean Black (R-Jacksonville), have filed new legislation (SB 1746/HB 1471) that would, in part, help more public sector unions skirt new, stringent requirements imposed on them by the law both Republicans sponsored last year.
At the same time, the new proposal — already backed by anti-union organizations like the Freedom Foundation and Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity — could also make it easier for the state to decertify unions and thereby nullify their contracts.
The legislation, signed into law last year by Gov. Ron DeSantis and described by the governor as a “paycheck protection” measure for public workers, issued a ban on the decades-old practice of deducting union dues from members’ paychecks. It also required unions to submit annual reports demonstrating that at least 60% of employees they represent are dues-paying union members.
Modeled after policies crafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative “bill mill,” the proposal was massively unpopular among dozens of union members, including self-described conservatives, who traveled to Tallahassee to speak against it.
According to federal census data, organized by labor and economic experts at UnionStats.com, Florida had roughly 300,000 – or 26.2% – of public sector workers represented by unions in 2023. Just about 20% were dues-paying union members.
But some public sector unions were spared from the law's new stringent requirements. Unions representing law enforcement officers, firefighters, and correctional officers (which routinely back Republicans for elected office) were exempted from most parts of last year’s SB 256, which was widely considered a politically motivated attack on the state’s teachers unions.
Teachers unions represent a large share of the state's unionized public sector workforce and had become, by that point, one of the governor's primary political punching bags as he prepared to campaign for president (that went well).
Similar policies have been pushed, successfully and unsuccessfully, in other GOP-controlled states for at least the past 20 years, with one of the most notorious (and egregious) examples being Wisconsin's Act 10, signed into law by then-Gov. Scott Walker in 2011.
Florida bill sponsors Sen. Ingoglia (who admitted last year he’s never been a union member) and Rep. Black (who said he couldn’t recall if he's ever been a union member) argued during the 2023 legislative session that unions needed further regulation in order to remain accountable to their members.
But multiple union representatives, including those from the GOP's revered police and firefighter unions, testified during a hearing Monday for this year's follow-up legislation, SB 1746, that since the passage of last year’s law, there have been “unintended consequences” for unions across the state.
A section of last year’s law, for instance, required all public sector unions to complete annual financial reports audited by a certified public accountant — a service that isn’t cheap. It can also be a logistical challenge for smaller unions, as GOP Sen. Joe Gruters, a CPA by trade, pointed out to his Republican colleagues last year before voting it down.
Rocco Salvitori, vice president of the Florida Firefighters Association, confirmed to Senate lawmakers Monday the new auditing requirement has been “almost impossible” for some of their smaller union affiliates.
“The CPA portion has been extremely difficult for our affiliates to comply with,” Salvitori told the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability committee on Monday. “We think the current language in the bill [SB 1746] will address that.”
This new legislation, meant to “clarify the intent” of the law passed last year, according to Ingoglia, would also address another aspect of the legislation that has caused confusion for Florida’s police unions. Those unions filed their own legal challenge against the state's Public Employees Relations Commission, led by DeSantis appointees, in July on behalf of members of their bargaining units who the unions quickly realized weren't exempted under PERC's interpretation of the law.
The new legislation filed, ostensibly to address this complaint, would add paramedics, EMTs, and 911 dispatchers to the list of workers exempted from the ban on payroll dues deductions and the 60% minimum membership requirement.
When Democratic lawmakers similarly tried to carve out those job classifications last year, Republicans rejected the idea. Now, they’re taking a page out of the minority party’s playbook.
Here's what else this year’s new legislation would do:
- Could expand the state's ability to decertify unions by allowing PERC to revoke certification (i.e. legal recognition) of unions that don’t petition for recertification within 30 days of submitting an annual membership report that shows their dues-paying membership is below 60% of eligible employees. The law allows PERC to revoke certification of unions that refuse to allow PERC to inspect membership authorization forms, and allows PERC to revoke certification of unions “intentionally misrepresenting any information submitted for its registration renewal.” Currently, this only applies to information submitted to verify the union has at least 60% membership, according to a Senate analysis.
- Make it easier for unions to comply with annual auditing requirements. Under the proposed legislation, unions would no longer need to have annual financial statements they submit to the state “audited” by a CPA. They would only need to be “prepared” by a CPA, which would be less costly and less complex for unions with little to report. So, this could be a plus for the unions.
- Narrow PERC’s ability to grant waivers to mass transit employee unions. Last year, Sen. Ingoglia offered a partial carve-out to mass transit unions after the union warned that failing to do so could jeopardize transit agencies’ ability to receive federal funding (an estimated $500 million annually). But there’s been confusion in the rollout of this waiver process, and a lawsuit filed by the state against the federal government over the mess to boot. And it could get worse. Now, the Republican bill sponsors want to add new requirements in order for transit unions to obtain a waiver through PERC.
- Add new reporting requirements for unions. The new legislation would require unions to report more details of their dues collection to the state, including the frequency of dues collection and any other assessments unions may collect. PERC would also be authorized to dictate the categories of revenues and expenditures that unions would have to include in their annual financial report.
Ingoglia admitted the new law has created “confusion” at PERC. Ingoglia also claimed, without offering up any specific examples, that some teachers unions in the state were trying to work around the law by attempting to add school resource officers to their bargaining units in an effort to exempt themselves from the law.
“There were some unions out there that were trying to game the system so we [are] closing loopholes,” said Ingoglia.
Stephanie Kunkle, representing the Florida Education Association, ignored Ingoglia’s accusations of gaming the system during public testimony. Instead, Kunkle emphasized the need to address “unintended consequences” of the bill — particularly the burden the legislation has placed on PERC and how that’s affected the FEA’s local affiliates, which represent more than 100,000 employees in Florida’s public education system.
“We have bargaining units across the state that have jumped through every hurdle that has been required under Senate Bill 256, and yet they still have not received their certification based under all of the new hurdles that were placed on PERC,” said Kunkle.
Under the legislation passed last year, if unions fail to reach or maintain a dues-paying membership of at least 60% of eligible employees, this triggers a recertification process in which a union must re-petition to continue representing those employees.
At least 30% of eligible workers must sign authorization cards confirming they want the union to represent them. Then more than 50% must vote in favor of continued union representation through an election process. Many public sector unions in the state, including teachers unions, have represented employees for decades.
A vote of less than 50% support for the union would result in decertification, which would also render the union’s collective bargaining agreement — or union contract — unenforceable. As some teachers’ unions in the state have pointed out, this could lead to the loss of things such as duty-free lunch breaks, planning time for lessons, and scheduled pay raises.
Under state law, the state checks to see if unions have reached or maintained at least 60% membership annually through a certification renewal process. Although, confusingly, each union has their own renewal date (this has made it more difficult to track the impact of the law passed last year).
A representative for PERC said on Monday that, even with additional resources allocated to them last year by the state (specifically for the implementation of this new law, according to budget documents), they’ve fallen behind on scheduling recertification elections.
“We're just starting to get to the point where we can order the elections,” PERC commissioner Donald Rubottom, appointed chairman of the agency by DeSantis last March, told lawmakers.
Rich Templin, lobbyist for the Florida AFL-CIO — a federation of unions representing more than one million working Floridians and retirees — told lawmakers that, at this point, they’re just looking for an opportunity to have a say.
“The ideological debate is over. The law passed,” said Templin. “Is it unjust? We believe absolutely. Is it unfair? We believe absolutely. But it is what it is.”
All the unions are asking for at this point, Templin said, “is for an opportunity to be heard, to collaborate” on the new legislation, which has already garnered the backing of conservative organizations that routinely lobby for anti-union state and federal policies.
Rusty Brown, a lobbyist with the Washington-based Freedom Foundation for instance, told Orlando Weekly last week his organization was “generally supportive” of the new changes. He explained they believe it will help “fix some issues” that came up during PERC’s rule-making process for last year’s legislation. For instance, confusion around the timeline for counting membership levels of unions.
“Somebody could be a member in January, decide they no longer want to be a member in March, and yet they would still be counted as a member as of the 30 days preceding a December registration,” said Brown. He did not disclose any other “issues” they would like the GOP bill sponsors to address. The Freedom Foundation, funded by a bunch of wealthy conservatives, regularly sends mailers to union members across the country, urging them to leave their unions.
A CBS News affiliate reported in October that the Freedom Foundation had played a direct role in wholly drafting last year’s legislation, which had been more than 10 years in the making by the time it finally passed in April.
Brown refuted this. “We helped in the drafting,” Brown said. “We helped [with] the concept. I mean, we helped, but I cannot take credit for writing that bill.” (Sure sounded like he wanted to though.)
When asked about the new carve-outs proposed this year for Florida unions representing paramedics, EMTs, and 911 dispatchers, Brown admitted he “couldn’t care less.”
Both the House and Senate bills have been referred to two committees of lawmakers instead of three, signaling the legislation has been prioritized for passage. If the legislation clears their committees with majority approval, they head next to the House and Senate floors for a vote by all members of their respective chambers. Both chambers need to approve the legislation in order for it to be sent to Gov. DeSantis for his signature. If passed, the legislation would be effective July 1, 2024.
This post has been updated to include clarification from the FEA on the number of bargaining units for instructional and non-instructional staff that had membership levels below 60% as of their registration renewal dates.
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