State Legislators Passed Anti Worker Union Busting Bill SB 256/HB 1445 

Every Floridian, no matter what we look like or where we come from, should have the freedom to be healthy, prosperous, and safe. We all share the core value that freedom should mean that, through hard work and determination, we all have a fair shot at the American Dream. However, each day our freedoms continue to be under attack from politicians who put corporate greed, extremist ideology, and self-serving political ambition ahead of what’s best for Floridians.

For many workers, unions represent a sense of community, a voice in the workplace, and a path to better benefits, fair wages and economic prosperity. Thousands of workers across Florida depend on their unions and colleagues to make important career decisions and secure a long-term economic path. Collective Bargaining is the right to negotiate and unite for a better future for ALL.

Every worker —no matter what they do, who signs their paychecks, what they look like, or where they’re from— deserves to have a voice in their workplace.

Desantis’s backed public sector union bill will greatly impact the ability of unions to organize and function in the state of Florida with unfair provisions such as increasing the union membership threshold to 60% and prohibiting automatic union dues deduction. The bill will impact workers and is a clear attempt to dissolve unions in the state. We need to join together to protect workers rights. All workers deserve the right to negotiate collectively for fair wages, benefits, and better, safer working conditions.

A provision within the legislation being touted prohibits any union representing public employees from having its dues and assessments deducted by the public employee’s employer. This will greatly impact union’s by forcing them to implement systems to directly collect dues from members, even though there are no issues within the current system.  

Prohibiting automatic union dues deduction is simply unfair. Employer’s often administer automatic paycheck deductions for things such as health insurance dues, contributions to 401k accounts, or donations to the United Way, so why not process union dues? This is an unfair and clear attempt to dissolve unions in Florida. It will affect workers in our state who rely on unions for a sense of community, security, and economic prosperity.

See Who Voted With the Workers and Who Voted Against there here for Senate and here for House