Posts tagged Florida
Labor unions lose 63,000 members under new state law
September 5, 2024 // The largest losses of union representation in Florida due to SB 256 come from those employed by the state government — more than 43,000 state employees have lost their unions. The second largest loss of union representation comes from university and college professors, specifically unions that represent adjunct and part-time faculty. Municipal employees from cities large and small follow. WLRN is using public records to maintain a database that shows the full extent of the fallout of the law.
Commentary: Workers of the World, Vote!
September 3, 2024 // Labor Day is the traditional start of the campaign season, which means labor unions will soon hold get-out-the-vote efforts among their members. Yet a new study from the Institute for the American Worker finds that 95.1% of private-sector union members never voted to join their union. Worse, unions are getting more unrepresentative. Based on one estimate, the percentage of private-sector union members who have voted in a unionization election at their workplace has declined by 2 points since 2009. The lack of workplace democracy isn’t an accident. As unions have acknowledged, they have sought to organize more workers through card check, a process by which they can pressure workers into supporting unionization. Card check—a public form of signature gathering—deprives employees of secret-ballot elections, which would allow them to express their preferences without fear of being ostracized.
Op-Ed: Florida vs. Michigan on Public Unions
August 30, 2024 // Each local union chapter must show that at least 60% of its eligible members are paying dues, or the state requires it to hold a new election. That sets teachers, clerks and custodians free from unions that haven’t won them over, and at least 20 units have been decertified in the past year. A few other states have also rolled back union coercion. Arkansas and Tennessee enacted paycheck protection for teachers. Kentucky legislators overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear to secure the same. On the other side of the trend is Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a repeal of paycheck protection for teachers last summer. She also ended a requirement that schools pay teachers based on merit instead of seniority alone
Federal judge says H-2A workers don’t have right to unionize
August 28, 2024 // In her ruling, Judge Lisa Wood acknowledged the Department of Labor has the authority to make rules governing H-2A workers. However, she says the Labor Department does not have the authority to “create law or protect newly created rights of agricultural workers.” That authority, she says, belongs to Congress. Citing previous legal precedents, Woods determined that issuing a nationwide injunction would give a single district court an outsized role in the federal systems. Therefore, her ruling only affects those listed as plaintiffs in the case initiated by the Southern Legal Foundation.
Under New Florida Law, Eight Adjunct Unions Are Dissolved
August 13, 2024 // The eight unions represented adjunct professors at Broward College, Hillsborough Community College, Miami Dade College, Seminole State College, St. Petersburg College, University of South Florida, Lake-Sumter State College and Valencia College.
Clearwater police union president charged with tipping off alleged drug dealers
August 7, 2024 // Fredrick Lise, who has served as president of the Clearwater police union for three years, faces eight felony charges for allegedly helping a multimillion-dollar drug trafficking organization. Deputies say he kept tabs on narcotics investigations into Matthew Turner and Henry Smith and alerted them to law enforcement surveillance. Lise, 32, is charged with misuse of public office for unlawful disclosure of criminal investigative information and unlawful use of two-way communications devices. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday and was being held on a $200,000 bond.
Memphis union workers prepare to strike ahead of AT&T negotiation deadline
August 5, 2024 // Last month, CWA members voted to authorize union leaders to call a strike at AT&T Southeast if the current contract was permitted to expire before AT&T had reached a fair agreement with its union employees. Union workers are expected to hold strike watch parties in the final hours of negotiations before the current union contract expires at 11:59 p.m.
OPINION: Republicans Don’t Need to Embrace Union Leaders to Win Union Workers
July 1, 2024 // Republicans should appeal directly to union members with commonsense policies. Working-class Americans are among the hardest hit by Bidenomics and its painful inflation. Republicans should reach them with policies that will reduce the cost of living and increase job opportunities. The GOP should simultaneously and forcefully oppose the union-backed demands with a message of spending restraint. Additionally, the GOP should extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025 — spurring a new era of job creation and wage growth.
17 state AGs sue Biden admin for allowing foreign farmworkers to unionize
June 14, 2024 // A group of 17 state attorneys general, led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration this week over a rule that allows temporary farm workers in the country on H-2A visas the power to unionize. Federal law bans American farm workers from collective bargaining. “Once again, Joe Biden is putting America last,” Kobach said in a statement. “He’s giving political benefits to foreign workers while American workers struggle in Biden’s horrible economy. I stand with American workers.”
Ranking Member Cassidy Blasts DOL Retaliating Against Florida, Illegally Withholding Federal Dollars on Behalf of Labor Unions
June 7, 2024 // U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, blasted the Department of Labor (DOL) for illegally withholding $800 million in federal funding from the State of Florida as retaliation against the state’s recent efforts to protect workers from union coercion and abuse. This illegal action has serious implications for other states that are considering similar legislation.