WFSU | By Lynn Hatter
Published May 10, 2023 at 10:08 PM EDT
Several public employee unions are suing after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping measure that, among other things, eliminates automatic payroll deductions for dues.
Republicans had tried for years to pass what critics call a union-busting bill.
The proposal builds on past efforts aimed at curbing public employee unions. The right of those workers to collectively bargain is enshrined in Florida’s constitution, but the public employee unions have often opposed the state’s Republican leadership.
Most recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lieutenant Gov. Jeannette Nunez called out the state’s teachers' unions over their opposition to mask mandate bans and criticism of efforts to remove books from school libraries.
“You have this situation with school unions—you have a right not to do it but what they do is provide authorization forms, blanket authorization forms, for automatic deduction of dues. So even though a lot of teachers don’t do it, many teachers feel pressure to do it," said DeSantis.
"The education unions have been turned into political weapons," said Nunez. "They’ve been not only spreading misinformation on the book ban hoax— which we’ve successfully debunked— but also we want to make sure teachers at the end of the day have money that goes into their pockets.”
Wednesday, the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, announced a federal lawsuit against the state over the law. Union...
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