That Union Thing
United Teachers of Dade will have to go through the process of recertifying its right to represent teachers thanks to Senate Bill 256, which just went into effect.
Under the law, public unions can no longer offer payroll deduction for payment of union dues; they must bill members and members must send in payment. The law also states that public unions must have an independent audit of membership each year, and if they fail to have at least 60 percent of the bargaining unit as dues-paying members, they must go through the same process they initially did to earn the right to represent employees: they must first show representative support from 30 percent of employees, and then win a majority of votes in an election. As of the recent audit, United Teachers of Dade had only 58.4 percent of employees as dues-paying members. It should be noted that police, firefighter, and correction-officers unions are exempt from this requirement. It should also be noted that to win union representation, the standards are much lower than the new law: only a majority, not 60 percent, need to vote in favor, and those voting do not need to be dues-paying members. Teachers argue that the new law is political payback for being critical of Governor DeSantis' educational policies.
