Gov. DeSantis signs changes to last year’s ‘union busting’ legislation

Image via AP.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation updating a law implemented last year barring certain public sector unions from automatically deducting dues from workers’ paychecks and requiring a higher threshold of union participation to remain certified.

His signature came in package of 25 other signed bills Friday.

The bill (SB 1746) exempts emergency medical technicians, 911 operators and mass transit workers from last year’s law, which requires 60% of workers to be union members in order for the union to remain certified. The law also requires additional reporting for unions.

Democrats were overwhelmingly opposed to the law when it was introduced and ultimately approved last year, noting that it amounted to union busting. They specifically noted that last year’s bill targeted teachers’ unions, while exempting law enforcement and firefighter unions. Teachers’ unions tend to support Democrats for office, while the public safety sector often supports GOP candidates.

Sen. Tina Polsky, this year, again fired back at the legislation noting that it “seems like it’s punitive just to make it harder” to join a union and for the union to maintain its status.

She and other Democrats voted in favor of an amendment to this year’s bill from Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican, that would have eliminated the requirement to use a membership form issued by the Public Employees Relations Commission in order to remove a duplicative form requirement. Gruters argued there was “no rationale for having unions complete two membership forms.”

But bill sponsor Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Republican, said it was “the only form that has the information that is just prescribed by law” and the amendment failed 14-22, with Democrats joining Gruters in support.

The Florida Education Association (FEA) immediately criticized lawmakers for passing the bill and DeSantis for signing it, noting that what legislators should have done this Session — “significant increases in funding” for schools, cost of living increases and addressing the teacher shortage — is not what they bothered with.

“Instead, Florida’s leaders continue to stand in the way of workers fighting for a better life by doubling down on last year’s anti-freedom bill by requiring a form full of anti-union propaganda be filled out by 60% of eligible employees or the union risks decertification,” the union wrote in a lengthy statement. “This law would require hard working teachers, education staff professionals, and professors to get permission from the state to be a union member — something that is not required to join any other organization in the state.”

They also called DeSantis out for hypocrisy.

“For a Governor so focused on personal freedoms, this law smacks of government intrusion and bureaucratic red tape that actually limits the personal freedoms of workers in our state,” they wrote. 

“While we thank the leaders in our legislature who stood up for workers and stood with voters by calling out the glaring hypocrisies with targeting this law at some workers but not others, it’s painfully obvious that Florida is only a free state for some.”

The bill takes effect immediately.

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Gray Rohrer of Florida Politics contributed to this report.