Pinellas, Hernando unions are among those challenging a measure forbidding school districts from collecting dues.

TALLAHASSEE — Saying unions are starting to get hit financially, teachers unions — including two from the Tampa Bay area — are again asking a federal judge to block part of a new state law that prevents dues from being deducted from workers’ paychecks.

Unions that represent public school employees and university faculty members have filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction against the dues-deduction ban, which took effect July 1. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last month declined to issue an injunction, but the unions revised the lawsuit and the injunction request.

“Plaintiffs are already suffering from a reduction in irreplaceable revenue that is about to get much worse,” the unions argued in a legal memorandum that accompanied the motion, filed last week.

Related: Tampa Bay teacher unions busy recruiting as new law threatens their role

The unions contend the dues-deduction ban unconstitutionally violates contracts that require payroll dues deductions. Those contracts were reached before the new law took effect.

“The core function of the (U.S. Constitution’s) Contracts Clause is to guard against an especially pernicious type of retroactive legislation: that which destroys citizens’ ability to rely on the protection of contractual commitments to plan their affairs, including in particular their financial affairs,” the memorandum said.

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