Florida Teachers Unions Suffer Financial Blow Thanks To New Paycheck Laws

Florida Teachers Unions Suffer Financial Blow Thanks To New Paycheck Laws

Reagan Reese on July 25, 2023

Several teachers unions are seeing a decrease in their revenue due to a Florida law that prohibits automatic paycheck deductions, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Florida teachers unions of both public schools and universities filed a revised lawsuit and injunction against the state’s dues-deduction ban that went into effect July 1, arguing that the law has caused the organizations to suffer major revenue loss, according to the Tampa Bay Times. In June, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker declined the unions’ May injunction, arguing that granting one would “offer no redress for plaintiffs’ injuries.”

“Plaintiffs are already suffering from a reduction in irreplaceable revenue that is about to get much worse,” the Florida teachers union argued, Tampa Bay Times reported.

In May, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a piece of legislation that prohibits public employee unions from automatically deducting dues from paychecks. The legislation also requires the unions to annually notify members of union costs.

The law requires union members to sign an authorization form acknowledging that Florida is a right-to-work state, and no union official can make more than the highest-paid member.

The teachers unions argued in their revised July lawsuit that the law is unconstitutional because some union contracts with school districts require automatic paycheck deductions, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

In addition to approving a record $1 billion for teacher salaries, the legislation I signed:
– Protects teacher paychecks from automatic union deductions
– Creates a Teachers’ Bill of Rights
– Reforms school board elections
– Removes social media from classrooms pic.twitter.com/tswnsNI1Ei

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) May 9, 2023

“You have this situation with school unions, you have a right to not do it,” DeSantis said in a press conference ahead of signing the bill. “But what they do is they provide authorization forms, blanket authorizations for automatic deduction of dues. So even though a lot of teachers don’t do it, many teachers feel pressure to do it and so what this bill does, it protects them.

The plaintiffs including the Florida Education Association, the United Faculty of Florida, the Alachua County Education Association, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.