Senate Bill 256 Will Ensure Unions are Held Accountable

MELBOURNE, FLA., May 4, 2023 — The Center for Independent Employees (CIE) is pleased to announce that its work over the past four years to improve union accountability law in Florida has helped to yield meaningful reform. Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the legislation, which improves oversight and raises standards for public union representation.

CIE, which has offices in Florida, has worked since 2019 to support efforts to craft SB 256. The Florida House of Representatives voted to pass the bill April 26; it will take effect upon receiving the governor’s signature. Among the bill’s provisions are:

Greater transparency on the costs and use of member dues, as well as the voluntary nature of membership. It would also require more robust reporting on union finances.

• A requirement that a union must revoke a public employee’s membership upon written request, giving the employee the freedom to opt out at any time.

• Improvement of union reporting requirements to prove that union membership rolls are accurate.

• A requirement that unions prove at least 60% of the employees in the bargaining unit are dues-paying members (up from 50%). Failure to show 60% will trigger an employee vote to either recertify or revoke the union’s representation.

• A prohibition on unions having dues and uniform assessments automatically deducted and collected by the employer. Unions, not taxpayers, are now responsible for collecting union dues and cannot simply reach into employees' paychecks.

The legislation addresses the flaws in a 2018 law that required unions to maintain a 50% membership threshold or face a recertification election. The 50% membership requirement was self-reported without basic requirements for proof, and therefore vulnerable to abuse. The original legislation focused only on Florida teachers. It is now expanded to all of Florida's municipal, county and state employees (excluding police and firefighters), allowing the most basic principle of freedom of association for a broader swath of the public sector. The oppression of unions like the Florida Education Association and other such organizations will no longer have a stranglehold on Florida’s public sector.

“Pro-union forces can squawk and try to spin this all they want, but this is just common-sense legislation," said CIE President Russ Brown. “No one should be hornswoggled into joining an organization that isn’t willing to lay their cards on the table. And no organization should be able to negotiate on behalf of a group of people without a meaningful show of support from those people.”

CIE Senior Vice President Keith Williams called the bill’s passage a “slam dunk for the common good” and a victory for basic employee rights.

“Who wins here? The public, which should never have been on the hook for collecting union dues – and the teachers and other public employees, who will now better understand what union membership means,” Williams said. “Who loses? Well, just a collection of private enterprises that falsely claim to be the voice of public employees.”

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The Center for Independent Employees (CIE) is a 501(c)(3) legal defense foundation that provides legal representation and aid to independent employees who are opposed to union oppression in their workplaces.

Contact: Keith Williams, Senior Vice President, (864) 316-9050