Florida Republicans are looking to strike a blow against the teachers union in Dade County after they forced a recertification vote in the state's largest county.
The 24,000 teachers in the county have finished voting under the state's new union law, which gave teachers three options: should the teachers be represented by the United Teachers of Dade County (UTD) as they have been for 50 years, should they be represented by no union at all, or should a new group known as the Miami-Dade Education Coalition, which is closely aligned with the Freedom Foundation, represent them?
The significance of the vote cannot be overstated. In order to maintain certification as the teacher's bargaining agent, the union must get 60% of teachers to back them. Anything less, and they will have to be recertified on an annual basis.
“This law is designed to kill unions by 1,000 cuts,” said UTD President Karla Hernández-Mats.
Or, the law is designed to ensure the union represents a solid majority of workers. Imagine that.
A victory for conservatives in Miami-Dade — either through abolishing UTD entirely or establishing a union they back — could be a sea change for labor politics. Teachers unions, both across the country and in Florida, have long been a key part of the Democratic Party’s coalition, providing millions of dollars and waves of volunteers to boost candidates up and down the ballot.
Florida’s policy shift, backed by the nonprofit Freedom Foundation that has long opposed organized labor, is having a dramatic effect across the state. Reportedly 54 unions representing more than 63,000 workers have been terminated since it was enacted.
The proposed union backed by Republicans, the Miami-Dade Education Coalition, promises to cut dues by 50%, reduce the salaries of the leadership, and stop spending on outside organizations like the national union.
“The big problem here is the unions are not focusing on the things that matter to us all,” said Brent Urbanik, president of the Miami-Dade Education Coalition. “They are getting sidetracked with pet political projects.”
Votes to recertify the union or allow another union to bargain for the teachers began to be counted by hand last week. But then, Helena hit and the vote counting was suspended. It has yet to be resumed and there is no word from the organization in charge of vote counting, the Public Employees Relations Commission, when the vote counting will continue
“As long as it’s up to the employees, that is what we aim to get at,” said Rusty Brown, the Freedom Foundation’s director of special projects that spearheaded the Miami union campaign. “We wanted to insert democracy into this system where it didn’t exist before.”
Governor Ron DeSantis has been spearheading the labor reform effort. Last June, he gave a speech about the upcoming recertification vote.
“All I can say is that old union in Miami-Dade fought tooth and nail to keep kids locked out of school,” DeSantis said in June, speaking about the upcoming union election. “They did not want kids in person during COVID, and they’ve worked really hard to push a political agenda, which is not what we need in our schools.”
The strategy employed by DeSantis is not likely to work in deep blue states like New York, California, and Illinois. Labor unions, especially the teacher's unions. are far too entrenched to dislodge them easily.
But if enough red states slough off union control of our classrooms and the students, as well as teachers, thrive without them, their example might loosen the grips of teacher's unions enough to allow for reforms.
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