A Florida law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May has the nation’s third-largest teachers union facing the unthinkable – extinction.
The United Teachers of Dade – which represents 25,000 Miami school workers – suddenly found itself fighting for survival 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 will be a blow not only to this union, but to the influence of teacher unions across the country.”
Noting that educators’ unions are increasingly out of touch with their members, DeSantis passed legislation ending the practice of automatically deducting dues from paychecks.
Conversely, teachers who find value in their labor representation are able to send the money themselves.
The law goes further, mandating that a union must have at least 60% of its bargaining units pay dues — or face dissolution.
DeSantis signed legislation in May targeting teachers unions. Getty Images
“If they don’t have a majority of teachers actually signed up to pay the fee, it should be canceled,” DeSantis said on Dec. 2022. “You shouldn’t be able to continue as a zombie organization that I don’t have the support of the people you are supposedly consulting with.”
Most observers largely dismissed 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 largest and most powerful teachers’ union in the Sunshine State is now up against a wall.
The organization failed to meet the 60% threshold in November, recording a contribution rate of just 56%. The anemic returns, union critics argue, are a clear reflection of member discontent.
The head of Dade United Teachers, Karla Hernandez-Mats, said the law is creating “chaos.” TNS
But Randi Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers union, accused the law’s supporters — including the Freedom Foundation — of being hostile to public education and unions in general.
“The Freedom Foundation, associated with Betsy DeVos and Gov. DeSantis, is spending a lot of money to destroy the Dade Teachers Association in Miami before they want to destroy education & public unions,” he tweeted in November.
A UTD spokesperson called the law “burdensome” and “anti-employee.”
The group’s president, Karla Hernandez-Mats, said it created “deliberate chaos” that made reaching the threshold more difficult.
But Beattie argues that union members have become frustrated with their representatives for a variety of reasons, from failing to address low wages to overt political partisanship.
Teacher pay has become a fraught issue in Florida, where educators can earn as little as $50,000 a year after decades of service and struggle to pay rent, let alone support a family.
American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten ripped DeSantis’ law as anti-union. Reuters
Others, Beattie says, have become alienated by what they see as a blanket union promotion of progressive political ideals.
“They want the union to get out of politics altogether,” he said. “They don’t want their union dues going one way or the other.”
A veteran Miami teacher told The Post that she cares more about things like pay, pensions and working conditions than the state’s culture wars.
“We want our union to fight for the basics,” he said. “We don’t understand, and people are fed up. When you struggle to buy groceries or you have to deal with a fight every 10 minutes at your school, your focus is not on the political issues of the day.”
UTD is currently in limbo.
United Teachers of Dade is the third largest teacher union in the United States. Teachers United Dade
To proceed, 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’s teachers.
But a new organization has emerged to challenge his supremacy, touting itself as an apolitical alternative.
“UTD labor leaders are using our union dues to pay themselves high wages and line the pockets of politicians instead of supporting the educators they are supposed to represent,” the Miami-Dade Education Coalition said on its website.
As a newcomer on the scene, the Freedom Foundation-backed MDEC is only required to gather 10% of the district’s school staff to participate in the vote.
A UTD spokesperson was unavailable for comment on Friday.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
