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鈥檚 constitution, but the public employee unions have often opposed the state鈥檚 Republican leadership.
Most recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lieutenant Gov. Jeannette Nunez called out the state鈥檚 teachers' unions over their opposition to mask mandate bans and criticism of efforts to remove books from school libraries.
鈥淵ou have this situation with school unions鈥攜ou 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鈥檛 do it, many teachers feel pressure to do it," said DeSantis.
"The education unions have been turned into political weapons," said Nunez. "They鈥檝e been not only spreading misinformation on the book ban hoax鈥� which we鈥檝e successfully debunked鈥� but also we want to make sure teachers at the end of the day have money that goes into their pockets.鈥�
Wednesday, the Florida Education Association, the state鈥檚 largest teachers union, announced a federal lawsuit against the state over the law. Union President Andrew Spar called it a form of political retribution.
"And here鈥檚 the thing; lawmakers know it鈥檚 not right. There was not a single lawmaker in either the House or Senate who spoke in favor of this legislation. Not a single lawmaker, except the two who sponsored the bills," he said.
The FEA says it's leaving the door open for other unions to join its lawsuit. Meanwhile other public employee unions, mainly in South Florida, filed suit in state court on Tuesday鈥攋ust hours after DeSantis signed the measure into law.
The only unions exempt from the measure are law enforcement and firefighters.
