The Leon Classroom Teachers Association has a tough road ahead now that Florida lawmakers OK’d a proposal raising the threshold for required membership to unions to be certified, a move critics say makes it harder for them to survive.
“There’s an overall frustration and anger that individuals who choose to be a part of their association through their individual freedoms now have to depend on the freedoms of other people to choose the same thing,” LCTA President Scott Mazur said.
The bill still must be approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis, though he’s almost certain to sign it. It would become effective July 1. It requires public sector unions to have at least 50% of public employees in a bargaining unit vote in a union certification election, and then it needs 50% of those who vote to certify or recertify the union.
Under the guidelines of the legislation, Mazur said, the LCTA doesn’t have the numbers to recertify, with a membership of only 41% of teachers active as union members. They would have to boost membership to at least 65% by May in order to survive by the time the bill becomes law this summer.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon publicly endorsed the bill and commended DeSantis for “working to ensure unions truly have the support of the educators they represent.”
Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas also supported the legislation, inviting several school board members from across the state including Leon School Board member Laurie Cox, to speak in favor of the bill during a committee hearing March 2.
“For most of my career, I saw where the teachers’ union … became a roadblock, rather than serving the teachers they were commanded to help,” Cox told lawmakers. The LCTA “is constantly a roadblock to us giving the teachers the money that they absolutely deserve.”
Mazur predicts the law will further disenfranchise public school teachers and eventually dismantle benefits the union has negotiated on behalf of all Leon County teachers – not just dues-paying union members.
The union reached a tentative agreement with the Leon County School District on March 10 for a $2.3 million salary package, extended parental leave, leave buy-back and free before- and after-school child care.
The teachers are set to ratify the agreement March 24. Mazur said the law would impact the teachers’ contract if the union were decertified, or in 2028, when contract terms expire.
“The work that has been accomplished in Leon County Schools with LCTA, like advocating for free childcare, getting leave buy back, getting parental leave, always negotiating for more money than what’s being offered originally, the contract defined seven-and-a-half-hour workday, all of that goes away. It’s not a guarantee,” Mazur said of the law’s impacts.
He added: “It’s not to say that our current leaders are going to do away with those things right away. But as the legislature continues to underfund public schools, districts will have to make choices, and those choices will be less people working more hours for less money.”
Alaijah Cross covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at abrown@tallahassee.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida legislation could end Leon and other teachers’ unions
Reporting by Alaijah Cross, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
