With a federal judge poised to hear arguments next week, the state is fighting an attempt to block key parts of a new law that places additional restrictions on public-employee unions.
Attorneys for the state filed a 66-page document Friday urging Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker to reject a request by teachers unions to issue a preliminary injunction against parts of the law that include preventing dues from being deducted from workers’ paychecks.
The document said the law, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is “the latest in Florida’s long history of regulating the terms of public employment” and makes “modest changes.”
“Its purpose is to ensure that public employees are aware of their rights to join (or not join) their unions and their rights to pay (or not pay) dues to those unions,” the document, a memorandum of law, said. “It also ensures that public employees have some understanding of how their unions use those dues. Public employees are often not aware of these issues.”
But the lawsuit, filed last month by the Florida Education Association, the United Faculty of Florida, the Alachua County teachers union and the University of Florida faculty union, alleges that the law violates First Amendment, equal-protection and contract rights.
For example, the unions are seeking a preliminary injunction against part of the law (SB 256) that requires specific information to be included on union membership forms.
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