Statement by Joanne McCall, Florida Education Association President on HB 25 House vote:
“Today, the Florida House of Representatives passed HB 25, a bill with the sole purpose of damaging certain public sector unions in our state.
As evidenced by the ever-changing, unprincipled reasons given by the supporters, the intent of HB 25 is very clear. This legislation is nothing more than a political strategy to silence the voice of teachers, nurses and other public-sector workers.
We greatly appreciate the united Democratic caucus and Republican Representative Goodson in their efforts to stop this politically motivated attack against our unions. Our fight now moves to the Florida Senate.
We will not be deterred from our mission by this single bad bill. We will continue our fight to ensure that every child has a high quality public education with a well-trained teacher in a welcoming and safe environment.”
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The Florida Education Association is the state’s largest association of professional employees, with more than 140,000 members. FEA represents pre K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, educational staff professionals, students at our colleges and universities preparing to become teachers and retired education employees.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Spounds like the issue with Senate Bill 5 in Ohio.
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It is a different type of attack. Ohio was modeled after Wisconsin creating right to work . And limiting what the Union can do . This is an extinction level event . Florida is already right to work , already restricts strikes of Public Workers . So you already have freeloading and weak unions . But when a union is the certified bargaining agent (at least in the private sector) only the Union can negotiate with the employer. Pubic Sector Unions are not covered in the NLRA so it becomes a State issue .But many States model their laws after federal law . So Florida does not ban public sector Unions . What this will do is make any Public union that does not have 50% dues paying members in the bargaining unit, decertified . Effectively eliminating the union .
There are solutions for this, see Sharron Angle about them . Resorting to those solutions were part of the reason for the NLRA. In fact the preamble to the act refers to avoiding those solutions .
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Diane, thanks for posting. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t know what is happening in my own state. I’ll start sending alerts for calls to senators.
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This is ugly:
“The measure exempts firefighters and police and corrections officers from the 50 percent requirement for certification. The provision raised suspicions last session with opponents who charged the bill’s intent was to silence the teachers’ union because of its advocacy on education policy.”
http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/12/06/house-fast-tracks-legislation-democrats-call-union-busting-bill/926708001/
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Every attack on teachers’ union is intended to remove advocacy for public schools.
No State has limited the advocacy of the charters avouvher supporters.
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Thanks for sharing this aspect of the bill. That is the most appalling aspect of it all. They are only going after the unions that don’t support them politically.
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Conservatives have discovered that all these nitpicking little state laws can have a big impact restricting other people’s rights. A woman’s right to choose is a perfect example. This decertification bill is a direct assault on organized labor.
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How right you are. Fla conservatives have proposed a revision to the state constitution to limit “privacy rights” to only documents. ‘We won’t read your grocery list but we sure will take over your body. If you are female, that is.’
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It’s a war on organized labor and women. Privatization undermines teaching jobs that are about 75% women.
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The average American employee by himself and herself stands no chance against corporate, state, or municipal power — except through collective power with fellow employees in a union. Employee unions have been demonized by corporate-owned politicians and media, but America’s churches strongly support unions: Just read the following strong moral pro-union stances taken by our nation’s mainstream churches and you will then know with certainty that you are morally right to support the expansion of unions and to oppose deceptively-labeled “right to work” laws that in truth are “Prepare to be fired at any time for any or no reason” laws. In the face of mammoth corporations and their puppet politicians, only by becoming united in unions can We the People secure our God-given rights to fair wages and benefits and job security. America’s churches strongly support unions and the collective bargaining that enables workers to have their fair share of the profits that their work creates, and The Right is on the wrong side of this issue:
Unions changed the lives of everyone for the better, including persons who never belonged to a union. But today the average American employee by himself/herself stands no chance against corporate or governmental power — except through collective power with fellow employees in a union. Deceptively-labeled “right to work” laws in truth are “Prepare to be fired at any time for any or no reason” laws. In the face of mammoth corporations and their puppet politicians, only by becoming united in unions can We the People secure our God-given rights to fair wages, fair benefits, and job security. America’s churches strongly support unions and the collective bargaining that enables workers to have their fair share of the profits that their work creates. Just read the following strong moral pro-union stances taken by our nation’s mainstream churches and you will then know with certainty that you are morally right to support the expansion of unions and to oppose so-called “right-to-work” laws:
CATHOLIC CHURCH — UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS, Pastoral Letter “Economic Justice for All,” 1986: “The [Catholic] Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions. This is a specific application of the more general right to associate [this makes unionizing a constitutional right under the First Amendment right of freedom to form associations]. No one may deny the right to organize without attacking human dignity itself. Therefore, we firmly oppose organized efforts — such as those regrettably seen in this country — to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing.”
POPE BENEDICT XVI, “Caritas in Veritate,” 2009: “Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past.”
AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES in the U.S.A. Resolution, 1981: “We reaffirm our position that workers have the right to organize by a free and democratic vote of the workers involved.”
CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, Preamble to the Workplace Fairness Resolution, adopted at the 104th Annual Convention, June 1993: “Jewish leaders, along with our Catholic and Protestant counterparts, have always supported the labor movement and the rights of employees to form unions for the purpose of engaging in collective bargaining and attaining fairness in the workplace. We believe that the permanent replacement of striking workers upsets the balance of power needed for collective bargaining, destroys the dignity of working people and undermines the democratic values of this nation.”
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, Resolution on the Church and Labor, 1938: “We believe in the right of laboring men to organize for protection against unjust conditions and to secure a more adequate share of the fruits of the toil.”
CHRISTIAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Discipline doctrine, adopted 1982: “Free collective bargaining has proved its value in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions.”
EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA, Resolution adopted at Churchwide Assembly, 1991: “The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America commits itself to advocacy with corporations, businesses, congregations and church-related institutions to protect the rights of workers, support the collective bargaining process, and protect the right to strike.”
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH U.S.A, “Principles of Vocation and Work,” adopted at General Assembly, 1995: “Justice demands that social institutions guarantee all persons the opportunity to participate actively in economic decision making that affects them. All workers — including undocumented, migrant and farm workers — have the right to choose to organize for the purposes of collective bargaining.”
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ASSOCIATION OF CONGREGATIONS, adopted at General Assembly, 1997: “The Unitarian Universalist Association urges its member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists in the United States… to work specifically in favor of mechanisms such as: reform of labor legislation and employment standards to provide greater protection for workers, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, protection from unsafe working conditions and protections from unjust dismissal.”
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, “Resolution Affirming Democratic Principles in an Emerging Global Economy,” adopted at 21st General Synod, 1997: “The 21st General Synod reaffirms the heritage of the United Church of Christ as an advocate for democratic, participatory and inclusive economic policies in both public and private sectors, including … the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits and working conditions, and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad.”
We the People have so much to thank unions for — and it’s a shame that so relatively few know the story of how selfless union workers even gave their lives to put into practice our First Amendment right to freely associate in labor unions and in doing so created The Great American Middle Class. Unionized workers gained equitable and fair incomes not only for themselves but also for non-unionized workers whose companies raised wages and provided benefits comparable to unionized companies in order to retain good employees and to avoid being unionized. Those good wages not only created The Great American Middle Class but also created our consumer-based economy. To bring back the financial health and strength of the Middle Class that our economy needs to grow, we must bring back union strength and membership.
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