Third largest U.S. teachers union ousted in Florida, and must compete with an upstart group for certification.
By Eileen Griffin
The third largest teachers union in the country, United Teachers of Dade (UTD), the labor organization for public school teachers in Miami-Dade County, Florida, did not gain the required 60 percent of teachers to support union membership, the Freedom Foundation reported in a press release on December 22. The union is now having to fight for its existence.
Under a new Florida law, SB 256, at least 60 percent of teachers must vote in support of the union in order for it to retain its position in the school district. Previously, the threshold was 50 percent. Without the required 60 percent, the union faces decertification.
The law was signed by Gov. DeSantis (R) in May of this year, the Tampa Bay Times reported at the time.
In addition to the threshold for membership, SB 256 also requires that unions set up their own payment processing system. The school district will no longer manage the automatic witholding of union dues for them. The unions will be required to manage their own finances and they will have to disclose their fiscal activities by providing audited financial statements.
“Now you’re in a situation where people get their paycheck,” DeSantis said. “If they want to then take a check and write it to the union, they have every right to do it, but they’ll be doing it with their eyes wide open, and they’ll know exactly how much money they’re talking about.”
The Freedom Foundation, a free market think tank promoting government accountability, assisted in the implementation of SB 256. Once the bill became law, a group of Miami teachers formed an alternative local organization called the Miami-Dade Education Coalition (MDEC) in partnership with the Freedom Foundation, to inform government employees in Florida they did not have to rejoin the UTD.
While the union fought their efforts and attacked and maligned the organization, MDEC was able to successfully expel the union. The MDEC and UTD are now competing for certification by teachers through the collection of signed cards of interest by January 18, according to the Freedom Foundation.
“Florida public employee unions—and UTD in particular—vehemently fought against increased accountability at the state level and now we know why: they knew if union members were given the opportunity to choose where to spend their money, it would probably go toward groceries and gas, rather than enriching the union leadership and funding their pet projects,” Allison Beattie, director of labor relations at the Freedom Foundation, said in a press release.
Two lawsuits filed so far by the UTD protesting SB 256 have both been defeated.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Janus vs AFSCME, individual government employees are no longer required to join unions. Teachers choose whether or not they want to join UTD.
Eliminating UTD from the school district entirely has effects beyond the state level, reducing fees paid to the national teachers unions.
Without UTD collecting dues from teachers in Dade County, the part of the union dues going to other groups, including the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, will also discontinue, CBS News reports. There are over 30,000 school district employees in the Miami-Dade district.
“The current attack on UTD is the latest in a decades-long effort by the right to weaken labor unions,” writes Jim Defede for CBS News.
“Senate Bill (SB) 256, House Bill (HB) 477, HB 1537, HB 1035 and HB 379 represent the most comprehensive package of pro-educator bills in Florida’s history, and probably the nation’s,” said Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. in a press release.
“In particular, I want to thank the personal stories of courageous educators who came forward over the last couple years to both elevate our understanding of how truly divisive unions and school boards can so often be in hiding their true purposes,” Diaz said.
Author and education-reform advocate Rebecca Friedrichs previously told Heartland Daily News that she refers to teachers unions as the “education mafia.”
“The teaching profession has been so completely infiltrated by this education mafia that great teachers, those who are there to really educate children, are being chased out,” Friedrichs said. “It’s to make room for activists who are pushing the agenda of the education mafia. This is very intentional.”
The more money unions have, the more power and ability to control teachers, students, and parents, Friedrichs said. The problems they cause will continue as long as they are funded by teacher dues.
“All of this was created by the education mafia,” Friedrichs said. “It used to be parents had a voice at the table until this education mafia got control. Collective bargaining removes the parents from the table. Literally every problem we have goes back to this mafia and their goals to undermine parents, undermine God, undermine our Republic, and to promote socialism and themselves. So, yes, giving them more money will perpetuate all of this.”
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