lorida Governor Ron DeSantis has been engaging in a concerted effort to strangle the liberties of the labor movement in the Sunshine State, and those efforts only seem to be growing bigger and bolder with time, as the Right-Wing governor is taking aim at Public Sector unions in the state.
“A big enemy of DeSantis is the teachers unions; he’s waged the war on teachers unions,” said McKenna Schueler during an interview on The Valley Labor Report last month. Schueler is a freelance journalist based in Florida, so she has had a front-row seat as the militant governor carries out this political war against unions.
“In January of this year, DeSantis unveiled this so-called ‘Teachers Bill of Rights’ that was just a blatant attack on teachers unions,” Schueler continued. “And then within a couple months Republican lawmakers introduced legislation that doesn’t just target teachers unions, it targets public sector unions at large…”
Conveniently, however, none of these new bills target specific unions that traditionally endorse Republican politicians and campaigns, including firefighters, law enforcement, correctional staff, and others.
The latest legislation to target public sector unions would ban automatic dues deductions and would impose a 60% membership threshold.
“In Florida, teachers unions are already required to meet a 50% threshold under a bill signed into law in 2018, but everybody I’ve spoken to has said it’s hard to reach a 60% threshold in a right-to-work state, [though] there are unions that have reached and surpassed the 60% threshold,” Schueler explained.
So how is this legislation being received by the working people in the Sunshine State?
“There has been just a wave of opposition to this legislation,” said Schueler. “The only open support for it is coming from representatives of Conservative think-tanks.”
No surprise there.
For a more in-depth analysis of how Governor DeSantis poses a real threat to the labor movement in Florida, watch the full discussion with McKenna Schueler on YouTube: