FL GOP Passes Bill to Undermine Unions for Public Employees, Except Cops. Affect Teachers, Nurses [View all]

- 'Florida GOP Passes Bill to Undermine Unions for Public Employees – Except Cops.'

The bill would bar unions for teachers and nurses from automatically collecting dues. TRUTHOUT, April 27, 2023.

The Republican-dominated Florida legislature passed an extreme anti-labor bill on Wednesday that would severely weaken unions for public employees and expand the state’s ability to abolish those unions, while carving out an exemption for a notable group: police.

The bill, which passed the state Senate last month and is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk, takes direct aim at public sector unions’ finances by barring them from being able to deduct dues from workers’ paychecks, forcing workers to make a separate payment — unlike how other regular payments like health insurance are typically deducted. Similarly to the way that so-called right-to-work laws erode unions by targeting union pocketbooks, the bill could severely harm unions’ ability to operate and exist in the state.

Even if the financial hit weren’t enough, the bill also gives the state the ability to dissolve a public sector union’s certification if the proportion of dues-paying members within a unit dips below 60%, forcing the union to seek recertification. Essentially, the bill sets up a path for unions to lose dues-paying members en masse with the goal of wiping out the unions and, potentially, their collective bargaining agreements.

Perhaps the most telling detail about the motivations behind the bill, which has the support of DeSantis, is which unions it doesn’t attack. Workers like nurses, school workers and teachers — the latter of whom have been the subject of relentless attacks by DeSantis’s fascist regime — would see their unions under threat due to the bill. But unions representing firefighters, corrections officers and police would still be allowed to collect dues as normal...
https://truthout.org/articles/florida-gop-passes-bill-to-undermine-unions-for-public-employees-except-cops/
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- Also: 'Florida’s Ron DeSantis Is Just a Step Behind Hungary’s Fascist Viktor Orban,' Truthout, April 28, 2023. - Anti-LGBTQ attacks in Hungary are offering bigoted inspiration to the far right in the U.S. https://truthout.org/articles/floridas-ron-desantis-is-just-a-step-behind-hungarys-fascist-viktor-orban/