JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law placing new restrictions on certain public sector unions, the Florida Education Association, the United Faculty of Florida and the Alachua County Education Association filed a complaint in the northern district of Florida challenging the law’s constitutionality under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
“The Act violates the Plaintiffs’ fundamental right to freedom of speech and association, their right to equal protection of the laws, and their right to be free from legislative impairments of their contractual rights,” the lawsuit states.
A “right to work state,” Florida already prohibits unions from requiring membership of employees, meaning employees already have the option to refrain from joining an organization. The new law places new restrictions on certain unions such as banning them from automatically deducting dues from employees’ paychecks, a process that’s been in place for decades as a means of convenience.
The law also gives employees the right to immediately quit a union for no reason and requires unions to recertify if the number of dues-paying members drops below 60% of those eligible to join.
Notably, the law carves out exceptions for unions representing law enforcement, firefighters and corrections officers; organizations that routinely support Republican political candidates including DeSantis.
“In a bid to punish the ‘school unions’ and other public employee unions who have opposed him (”disfavored unions”), Governor DeSantis pushed for “unprecedented” changes to Florida’s collective bargaining law to harm disfavored unions while exempting those unions representing law enforcement, corrections, and firefighter employees who have supported him (“favored unions”),” the lawsuit states. “The Act imposes a variety of draconian restrictions on the Governor’s union opponents—including by compelling them to deliver a government drafted script on their union membership cards with which they fundamentally disagree—while leaving unions that supported the Governor free to conduct their affairs in accordance with ordinary labor relations principles of long-standing.”
DeSantis administration officials have called the law a measure to increase the transparency of unions.
“[This law] relieves the pressure off the individual teacher or employee, they can make more of an informed decision, they have a better sense of how much money is actually going. And then they can evaluate what is the union actually doing for them,” DeSantis said.
Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar said the law is simply meant to unfairly weaken organizations that DeSantis sees as his enemy.
“The governor may have let his desire to crush perceived opponents get the best of him,” Spar said. “This new law grossly oversteps in trying to silence teachers, staff, professors and most other public employees. We will not go quietly. Our students and our professions are simply too important.”
The lawsuit, which targets the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission, calls for a declaration that the law is unconstitutional, a prohibition of the law’s enforcement, and an award of the union’s attorneys fees.