“Workers in Florida are reaching a tipping point”: DeSantis ‘slapped in the face’ as he faces defeat in the never-ending war with unions
Florida – The Florida Education Association (FEA) has made a big announcement that will change the state’s labor landscape: 100 of its local teachers’ unions have successfully passed the state’s new recertification procedure. This victory comes in the middle of a fight over public sector unions that has been going on for a long time. It comes less than two years after the state passed stricter legislation to cripple organized labor.
Senate Bill 256, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law in 2023, is at the center of the problem. The law amended the regulations for most public sector unions. Now, they have to keep at least 60% of their members paying dues or they will have to hold a recertification election, which is both time-consuming and expensive.
Florida’s right-to-work laws made it hard to organize workers because unions have to represent all workers in their bargaining unit, but no worker can be forced to pay union dues. A new rule in SB 256 says that any union that doesn’t obtain 60% of the vote must ask for a new vote or risk losing its status.
Many people who work for the government in Florida have seen the stakes become real. Since the law went into effect, state statistics reveal that more than 69,000 workers, including school bus drivers, adjunct professors, and nurses, have lost their union representation because they couldn’t pass the recertification tests. Union contracts and protections for those workers are no longer valid, and any promises or improvements made to the workplace are no longer enforceable.
Read also: DeSantis gives ‘license to kill” to all Floridians: “You have a right to defend yourself in Florida”
Even with those problems, the FEA’s connected locals have won every recertification they have entered: 100 straight wins. The union says that the average “yes” vote in these elections has been a huge 94.3 percent.
“Educators in the state of Florida, whether it’s professors or graduate assistants, whether it’s instructional staff in our K-12 schools or our support staff in those schools, they have all made it clear they want their union, and they want their contract,” FEA president Andrew Spar said.
The union’s win is especially impressive given the way these elections are set up. SB 256 made it illegal to deduct union dues from paychecks, which means that members must now take extra steps to pay, making it even harder to recruit new members. And while the law’s backers argued it would increase transparency and accountability, parts of it were later struck down as unconstitutional.
The state agency in charge of the process, the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC), has had a hard time with the need for recurrent elections. The agency remains overburdened, and more than 15 FEA-affiliated units are still waiting for their recertification dates.
Spar argues the law was never about good government, but about political power. “This law was a blatant attempt to try to silence Florida’s educators,” he said, adding that millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on additional elections and administrative work. For him, the battle isn’t just about teachers’ rights, but the future of public education itself:
“Students deserve public schools that are fully staffed and resourced with the programs and assistance they need. Parents deserve to know that their communities are stronger because of their public schools,” Spar added.
Union leaders say their struggle goes on, not just for their own members but for all workers in Florida, as the FEA celebrates this milestone. They argue that the success of these recertification elections shows that workers are starting to fight back against legislation they think are aimed at taking away their collective power, at a time when families across the state are feeling the effects of the economy.
“Workers in Florida are reaching a tipping point—inflation is impacting families daily while bureaucrats and billionaires continue to amass wealth,” Spar added.
