A Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May has the nation’s third-largest teachers union facing what was once unthinkable: extinction.
The United Teachers of Dade, which represents 25,000 Miami school workers, suddenly found itself struggling to survive after nearly 50 years at the helm.
“This is a very real existential threat,” said Allison Beattie, director of labor relations at the Freedom Foundation, a conservative union watchdog. “This would be a huge blow not only to this union, but also to the influence of teachers unions across the country.”
Claiming that educators unions were increasingly disconnected from their members, DeSantis signed legislation that ended the practice of automatically deducting dues from paychecks.
Instead, teachers who found value in their labor representation were able to send the money on their own.
The law went further and required that a union must have at least 60% of its bargaining unit paying dues, or face dissolution.
DeSantis signed legislation in May that targeted teachers unions. fake images
“If you don’t have a majority of teachers who actually sign up to pay their dues, you should decertify,” DeSantis said in December 2022. “You shouldn’t be able to continue as a zombie organization that doesn’t have the support of the people it supports.” “You are supposedly negotiating.”
Most observers were largely dismissive of DeSantis’ rhetoric at the time, arguing that his anti-union polemics pleased his base but would produce few tangible results.
But a year later, the Sunshine State’s largest and most powerful teachers union now finds its back against the wall.
The organization failed to reach the 60% threshold in November, recording a contribution rate of just 56%. The anemic results, union critics maintain, were a clear reflection of members’ dissatisfaction.
United Teachers of Dade head Karla Hernandez-Mats said the legislation created “chaos.” TNS
But Randi Weingarten, who heads the national union American Federation of Teachers, accused supporters of the legislation – including the Freedom Foundation – of hostility toward public education and unions in general.
“Freedom Foundation, partnered with Betsy DeVos and Governor DeSantis, are spending a lot of money to break up the United Teachers of Dade union in Miami because they want to destroy public education and unions,” he tweeted in November.
A UTD spokesperson described the law as “onerous” and “anti-worker.”
The group’s president, Karla Hernández-Mats, said it unleashed “intentionally created chaos” that made reaching the threshold more difficult.
But Beattie maintained that union members have become disillusioned with their representation for a number of reasons, from a failure to address poverty wages to overt political partisanship.
Teacher pay has become a hot-button issue in Florida, where educators can earn as little as $50,000 a year after decades of service and struggling to pay rent, much less support a family.
American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten criticized DeSantis’ legislation as anti-union. REUTERS
Others, Beattie said, have distanced themselves from what they see as widespread union promotion of progressive political ideals.
“They want the union to be completely out of politics,” he said. “They don’t want their union dues to go one way or another.”
A veteran Miami teacher told The Post that she is more concerned about issues like salaries, pensions and working conditions than about the state’s culture wars.
“We want our union to fight for the basics,” he said. “We don’t understand it and people are fed up. “When you have trouble buying food or have to deal with fights every 10 minutes at school, your attention is not on the political issue of the day.”
The UTD is now in limbo.
United Teachers of Dade is the third largest teachers union in the United States. United Dade Teachers
To survive, the union must first get 30% of its members to formally express interest in a new vote to determine who will be certified to represent Miami teachers.
But a new organization has emerged to challenge its supremacy, touting itself as a staunchly apolitical alternative.
“UTD union leaders used our union dues to pay themselves high salaries and line the pockets of politicians instead of supporting the educators they are supposed to represent,” the Miami-Dade Education Coalition states on its website.
As a newcomer to the scene, MDEC, backed by the Freedom Foundation, only needs to muster 10% of the district’s school staff to appear on the ballot.
A UTD spokesperson was not available for comment Friday.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn