Posts tagged Ron DeSantis
Op-ed Lawmakers: Protecting teachers’ paychecks is an Oklahoma priority
May 9, 2023 // Teachers across the country seem to be awakening to the gulf between their own values and the political bent of the unions. The National Education Association, which is one of the nation’s largest teachers union, ended 2022 with a net loss of 40,107 members, marking its lowest membership level since 2006. But educators shouldn’t be left to resist union overreach on their own. They need their state leaders to hold unions accountable and to protect teachers’ rights. Oklahoma leaders already have begun tackling this important issue. In 2021, we authored legislation, now reintroduced as Senate Bill 99, which would help protect teachers’ First Amendment rights to decide whether to pay union dues. Gov. Kevin Stitt followed in 2022 with an executive order calling for action on teacher notification, which would guarantee teachers a written notice to confirm that joining and paying a union is optional. State schools Superintendent Ryan Walters also has been a vocal proponent of teacher paycheck protection. Now the issue is front and center once again, not just in Oklahoma but across the country. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a legislative proposal earlier this year to protect teachers’ constitutional freedoms, reduce union overreach and get Florida taxpayers out of the business of collecting union dues. Meanwhile, state leaders in Indiana also are prioritizing the needs of their teachers, and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has introduced similar legislation.
Red States Lead the Way on Protecting Workers
May 5, 2023 // It’s not just school choice and tax cuts. Red states have also made 2023 a banner year for labor reform, the best in years. Credit goes to governors and lawmakers who want to empower workers, save money for taxpayers, and make their states more competitive and responsive to citizens’ needs.
A bill that changes how union dues and fees are collected is headed to the Governor’s desk
April 27, 2023 // Lanny Mathis is the President of North Central Florida Central Labor Council who represents nearly 3,000 people. He says payment changes are just one of his concerns. The legislation also proposes to raise union membership from 50% to 60 % of those eligible to join or they could face decertification. The legislation does not effect law enforcement including: fire fighters and correctional officers.
Florida House Passes Historic Union Transparency Bill Backed by Workers for Opportunity
April 26, 2023 // The Florida House of Representatives voted today to pass SB 256, which increases union transparency and changes how union dues are collected for public employees. Workers for Opportunity has spearheaded this collaborative effort with teachers, policymakers, the administration and in-state allies since 2019. The legislation drew from Workers for Opportunity's proposed reforms giving employees more control over their paychecks and union representation. "This bill gives Florida teachers a voice and a choice,” said Senior Labor Policy Advisor Vincent Vernuccio. “Teachers and other public workers will know their rights. They’ll know exactly how much union membership costs them each year. And they’ll know that, if their union isn’t serving them, they can do something about it." The bill allows public employees to opt out of union membership at any time. It also increases the threshold for triggering a union recertification from 50% to 60%,
Union rally in Florida shows disconnect with teachers
April 24, 2023 // The rallying cry for rally organizers and attendees, “You’re Not Fooling Us Ron!” was a direct barb at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The event flyer listed several of the union’s concerns for teachers, such as “struggling to keep politics out of classrooms,” “struggling to keep our kids and ourselves safe at school” because state lawmakers are “more concerned about banning books,” and “struggling to educate our kids with massive class sizes, burdensome state testing, and big government overreach” due to state lawmakers’ focus “on taking our unionized voice away.” The flyer also included social media hashtag #NotFoolingUs.
AFT’s Weingarten goes all-in on progressive politics
April 6, 2023 // The annual “Share My Lesson” virtual conference is supposed to be a forum to discuss classroom instruction strategies, curriculum ideas, or lesson plans. Instead, Weingarten used the time to highlight partisan, political rhetoric. She began her address by painting a picture about teachers unions like AFT, as being “on the side of hope, of aspiration, of humanity,” in contrast to partisan politicians. “Teachers are stewards of society,” Weingarten said, “Teachers are nation builders.” Weingarten said too many politicians are trying to “drive a wedge between parents and teachers because you think it works as a politician to get you votes.” Weingarten, who has a track record of being an outspoken critic of politicians on the political Right, then focused much of her ire on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. She claimed that DeSantis is “leading this charge [against teachers]. They’re threatening teachers with felonies and jail time if they give their students the wrong book to read.”
Florida Republicans introduce bills prohibiting paycheck deductions for public-sector union dues
March 14, 2023 // Vincent Vernuccio, a representative for the Mackinac Center’s Workers for Opportunity initiative, said, “[SB 256] is about transparency, accountability, good bookkeeping, and democracy. … This bill is about the rights of public employees: making sure they’re informed and they can exercise them.” Freedom Foundation representative Rusty Brown said, “There’s nothing in this bill that curtails organizing or collective bargaining for wages, benefits, or working conditions, which is what a union should be doing. And when you have a union whose membership is half [the people they represent] … then that could be indicative of a problem. … [This bill] gives the employees represented by the union the opportunity to vote … if they would like to continue allowing that union to represent them.”
Opinion: Collective Manipulation; Whether in courts or in legislatures, public employee unions need to be reined in.
February 22, 2023 // The book contains countless examples of collective bargaining agreements effectively allowing employees to get away with gross misconduct and preventing managers from sanctioning them for lackluster work. An EPA employee was caught surfing porn in his cubicle at work and was paid for nearly two years before agreeing to retire. An IRS agent systematically denied benefits to African immigrants, repeatedly made discriminatory remarks in the office, and tried to run another employee off the road. His union lawyers got him a deal that left him with a clean personnel record when he left the agency, allowing him to get a job with the Forestry Service. “As a practical matter,” Howard writes, “almost no public employee can be dismissed without a massive managerial commitment,” and even that commitment does not guarantee success. California has 300,000 teachers and only about two or three a year lose their jobs because of poor performance. At the federal level, more employees die at work than face termination for poor performance. Public sector unions provide more than direct financial contributions to political campaigns. Howard recounts how they recruit and train candidates, manage phone banks, lead door-to-door canvassing drives, staff campaigns, and run ads. Such union political activity makes them larger and more influential than other political interest groups. The protracted legal battles former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker faced after he proposed reining in public-union power supports Howard’s thesis that union power is formidable. Walker beat a union-led recall effort against him, but union opposition to modest changes led to electoral annihilation in New Jersey in the 1990s.
DeSantis stands up for teachers
February 10, 2023 // The governor’s proposal, dubbed a Teacher’s Bill of Rights, draws clear boundary lines between the interests of teachers and the interests of teachers unions. The proposal restores the rights of taxpayers and teachers, who don’t always support union politics. For example, DeSantis’s proposal would end the practice of union dues being deducted directly from teachers’ paychecks — a process undertaken at taxpayers’ expense. And the governor’s proposal would prohibit union officials from doing union work while on the clock for their taxpayer-funded job. Known as “release time,” the paid workday hours that public employees spend doing union work can add up. In Miami-Dade County alone, public employees spent 132,433 on-the-clock hours doing union work between fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2019, according to a James Madison Institute report. Those hours cost taxpayers more than $4 million. The governor has also taken aim at so-called “zombie unions,” which lack adequate documented support from the teachers they claim to represent.
Florida labor reforms have not strengthened unions
January 5, 2023 // In other words, Florida’s largest teachers union is down more than 9,000 members since 2019, or 6.3%. The labor reforms Florida is pursuing are good for teachers and other workers. Nobody should be forced to be represented by a political organization they oppose — so the Workplace Democracy Act, requiring unions to be recertified regularly, makes sense. And taxpayers should not be funding the withholding of money for political organizations — so Paycheck Protection to put an end to that is sound policy.