Posts tagged Florida
Affordability at forefront of union negotiations between Pinellas district and teachers
July 23, 2026 // If the district and teachers association are unable to negotiate a contract ahead of the July 31 deadline they will reach impasse. Impasse is a deadlock in negotiations between workers and employers. Though this has not occurred since 2009, association members and officials are saying that this year, impasse is not an impossibility. If an impasse is reached, Florida’s Public Employees Relations Commission will appoint a special magistrate who will make recommendations on disputed contract items. If those recommendations are not approved by both parties, it will head to the school board which will make a final ruling on any remaining disputes.
Teachers’ Unions Are Losing One of Their Government Perks
July 22, 2026 // The question is not whether teachers unions should exist, but whether taxpayers should subsidize organizations that subsequently seek more taxpayer subsidy, often for actions the taxpayer wouldn’t otherwise support. Removing public subsidies forces unions to rely on voluntary member support, increases accountability, and keeps government resources focused on their proper purpose: educating children. The reforms in Idaho, Florida, and Arizona mark the beginning of a necessary correction.
Teachers Pay Dues. Union Leadership Funds Activism.
July 20, 2026 // The Department of Labor proposed a remedy in 2019. Under the proposed rule, public-sector intermediate union bodies subordinate to national organizations would file detailed annual financial reports like those required of private-sector unions. That change would give teachers, parents, and taxpayers greater visibility into how dues are spent, where political spending occurs and how much money flows through organizations that frequently rely on taxpayer-funded facilities, payroll deduction systems, release time and administrative support. Some states have acted. Florida prohibits payroll deduction of union dues for teachers. Connecticut requires unions to provide members a copy of their financial reports, a requirement enforced inconsistently for years, until public scrutinyand litigation by the Fairness Center pushed the state Department of Labor to begin enforcing it.
While NAEP scores hit 20-year lows, teachers’ unions were debating ethical veganism
July 16, 2026 // Recognizing ethical veganism as a protected philosophical belief; glyphosate has no place on student food and beverages; opposing merging US military operations, intelligence, and/or defense technology with those of any foreign military; comprehensive immigration reform; banning the use of AI in the decision-making process for the use of nuclear weapons; investigating fires for evidence of microwave energy attacks through the use of “direct energy weapons”; prohibiting weather modification to be injected into the stratosphere; calling for the impeachment of Trump before the November election, at a campaign cost of $5.2 million; and ending the war in Iran. For an entity that cloaks itself in sanctimony for defending the rights of teachers, it seems very much that the welfare of average union members might not be the C-suite’s top priority.
New York Teachers’ Unions Latest Lawsuit to Limit School Choice
July 14, 2026 // NYSUT has pursued legal action to prevent additional charters from opening. Earlier this year, it sued SUNY to block new charters on Long Island and previously tried to prevent Vertex Charter School from opening. These actions ignore student outcomes; for example, Vertex is located in a Bronx district where only 7 percent of high school graduates are prepared for college. Strive Charter School has an innovative model focused on low-income families: it will be open every day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including weekends and summer, to support families that struggle to afford child care. NYSUT is responding to declining student enrollment in New York State, which is expected to reduce teaching positions—and, consequently, dues-paying members.
Report: 5 unintended effects kicked in after California raised minimum wage
July 10, 2026 // So the $20 wage may technically work. Some workers really do earn that much per hour now. But the bigger goal, helping fast food workers build a stable life, is slipping away in a different direction. The jobs are shrinking. The hours are shrinking. And the restaurants of the future may not need a person at the counter to hand you your food at all.
Miami-Dade teachers union says it survives despite missing participation threshold
July 10, 2026 // Miami-Dade’s teachers union says it will survive another year, even after falling just shy of a 50% recertification voter participation threshold among eligible employees set by a recent law. A spokesperson for United Teachers of Dade said Tuesday they were informed by officials with the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) that the threshold did not apply to this election because the process began before July 1, when the law took effect. The union shared a signed form from PERC stating that the union had “prevailed” in the election. Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article316414172.html#storylink=cpy
Op-ed: 8 years after Janus, unions are still trying to keep workers in the dark
July 6, 2026 // The National Education Association’s headquarters dues revenue fell from $370 million in fiscal 2017 to an inflation-adjusted $310 million five years later — a decline in real terms of about 16 percent. Nationally, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show public-sector union density slid from 33.9 percent in 2018 to 32.2 percent in 2024, before edging back up to 32.9 percent last year. States that gave workers more direct control over their own dues saw the effect even more clearly. After Florida ended government payroll deduction of union dues in 2023, the Florida Education Association lost more than 20,000 members in a single school year. When workers must actively choose to pay, rather than having dues quietly deducted by default, a meaningful share of them chooses not to.
A Mamdani-inspired democratic socialist swayed FL unions against a Dem incumbent
July 1, 2026 // Florida’s largest federation of labor unions, the Florida AFL-CIO, has endorsed all of the state’s sitting Democratic members of Congress who are up for reelection - except for Jared Moskowitz. The move comes after democratic socialist and labor union organizer Oliver Larkin worked to sway delegates at the federation’s annual mid-June endorsement convention against Moskowitz, who has represented parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties since 2023.
Pritzker gets his school cell phone ban bill despite CTU opposition
June 23, 2026 // While acknowledging that “phones can be distracting,” the CTU opposes the measure because phones can be “lifelines for students” who fear immigration enforcement. But that’s arguably covered by one of the exceptions districts can detail in their emergency and crisis response plans. The union also called the bill itself a distraction, that noting managing phones already “is part of the daily work” of educators. With just 2-in-5 Chicago Public Schools students reading at grade level and about 1-in-4 doing math proficiently, maybe the CTU shouldn’t get distracted itself by a cell phone law.