Posts tagged United Teachers of Dade
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.
After decades of corruption Florida teachers seek new union with integrity
February 25, 2024 // “I noted that the increase in union dues and health care costs were not matched by commensurate salary improvements,” Beightol said. “I began investigating what was going on.” Around the same time, former UTD president Pat Tornillo was arrested for swindling the union out of millions of dollars. Beightol unsuccessfully ran for president of UTD twice, before being expelled for “anti-union” behavior.
Commentary: Florida Teachers’ Union Fights Re-Certification Vote
February 6, 2024 // With an annual budget of $11.5 million, that means UTD sends nearly half of the dues it collects from its members out of the district. Of the $6.2 million it keeps in Dade County, UTD spends more than $5 million on salaries for officers and staff (Hernandez-Mats alone pulls down $223,000). Once its other overhead costs are factored in, the union has only a tiny fraction left to spend advocating for its dues-payers.
Florida Teachers’ Union Fights Re-certification Vote
January 29, 2024 // The Florida State Legislature last summer addressed this upside-down arrangement by passing a law requiring government employee unions whose paid membership drops below 60 percent to ask the workers for a vote of confidence. When UTD’s membership rate - even after a furious last-minute recruiting drive – was found during a December audit to hover at around 56 percent, the recertification apparatus kicked in automatically.
Commentary: America’s Third Largest Teachers’ Union Heads for the Largest Decertification Vote in History
January 2, 2024 // On Dec. 19, UTD President Karla Hernandez-Mats confirmed the union hadn’t been able to persuade 60 percent of the 30,000 teachers it officially represents to become dues-paying members. A few days earlier, she claimed the union had increased its numbers to just more than 58 percent, including 800 new members. What she didn’t explain was that the union had to kick out all the substitute teachers from the bargaining district in order to increase their membership percentage, and still fell short. Hernandez-Mats declined to disclose the final tally. The 60 percent requirement was imposed under Senate Bill 256, the most aggressive state labor reform bill since Wisconsin’s Act 10 under then-Gov. Scott Walker. SB 256 also prohibits public agencies like school districts from deducting dues directly from employees’ paychecks on behalf of the union representing their bargaining unit.
Miami-Dade’s Largest Teachers Union, Faces Decertification after Failing to Meet New Membership Law Requirements
December 21, 2023 // The UTD is now compelled to demonstrate that a minimum of 30% of its members desire union representation by collecting "showing of interest cards," a move in pursuit of certification eligibility. In a statement obtained by CBS News Miami, UTD described its ongoing activities: "From the strongest position regarding union solidarity and the fight for our collective wellbeing, we are now gathering Showing of Interest cards to be on the PERC Ballot to be certified as the union for education professionals in order to maintain our contract, wages, and benefits."
Florida’s largest teachers union may face decertification under new state law
December 4, 2023 // AFFT reported that at least 42 Florida teachers unions are below the threshold and could face recertification votes for the first time, including UTD. As of last week, only 58.4% of Miami-Dade teachers are members of the union. “Last year we were at 51%, and last week we were at 58.4% in the third largest school district in the United States,” said union president Karla Hernandez-Mats. “People want to have their rights, people want to have wages, benefits, and a union that fights for them. And unfortunately, we’re seeing anti-worker legislation.” Most union members have never voted for a union to represent them. That’s because once unions are certified, they remain the exclusive representative unless challenged with a decertification vote. For the majority of public unions, that original certification happened decades ago.
Florida teachers’ union accused of strong-arming educators to join in effort to boost lagging numbers
December 3, 2023 // “I used to be a UTD building steward, and I was so disgusted with the union that I left it,” the teacher responded, according to the complaint. “Why would I want to pay dues?” The second complaint alleges that an organizer at a Miami-Dade public school made “loud and shaming remarks” about a teacher “in the presence of her colleagues” in an attempt to “verbally pressure” her into paying union dues. The teacher was approached as she was trying to use the faculty lounge’s restroom and made “repeated assertions that she d[id] not want to pay dues or be a member” of UTD, the filing states.
Miami-Dade teachers’ union faces potential decertification
November 17, 2023 // As of last week, only 58.4% of United Teachers of Dade members were paying dues to the union, short of the 60% required by most public sector unions under a new state law. On Friday, the union was set to send a snapshot of membership to the Public Employee Relations Commission, or PERC, the state agency that regulates public employee unions.
A Tale of Two Teachers’ Unions
November 17, 2023 // Efforts to decertify the teachers’ union in Miami are possible because conservatives won elections and passed a good law that limits public-sector unions’ power. States with conservative governments should follow Florida’s lead and pass similar laws. States with progressive governments will continue to struggle under the burden of unrepresentative teachers’ unions.