The largest teachers’ union in Florida is at risk of being decertified following new legislation that requires 60% of registered teachers to be part of their workplace’s union for the union to remain certified. Senate Bill 256 was signed into law in May by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and imposes restrictions on public-sector unions. Critics of the law, educators, and labor organizers say the bill is meant to union-bust and undermine the state’s labor movement. 

United Teachers of Dade (UTD) officials announced they had only 58.4% membership as of Nov. 10, just shy of the new 60% requirement. A UTD spokesperson said officials were required to send final membership counts to the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC), a state agency that regulates public-employee unions, by Nov. 20. The union has until mid-December to prove to the state that it has reached the new threshold. Otherwise, it faces decertification. UTD has not responded to Prism’s request for updated information on the union certification. 

“It would be a big blow to all of us,” said Bernie Linares, a high school teacher and UTD member. “We could lose everything that [UTD has] gotten … That’s the thing that’s worrying me personally the most.”

Decertification will drastically weaken protections for teachers in Florida’s largest school district, leaving them vulnerable while bargaining for raises and protections in the classroom amid a continuously antagonistic political climate. Just this year, the union successfully bargained for its members to receive 7-10% pay raises. For Linares, that could mean a difference of up to $8,000 in his paycheck.

“If something happens at work, they would represent my interests and not the school or the administration’s interest,” Linares said. “In the event that something did happen, I know that they would be there for me. I’m very concerned about, what if the union goes away, there’s no union. Now they’re going to be able to kind of treat it as at-will employment if they want … I know that protection makes me feel safe at work, and I’m just really worried about losing that.” 

The Freedom Foundation, which supported SB 256, is now sponsoring an alternative to UTD in a further attempt to disband the union. The Miami-Dade Education Coalition (MDEC) is only required by federal law to collect 10% of show-of-interest cards to intervene in the election. A video released by the Freedom Foundation shows Miami-Dade County Public Schools teachers and employees criticizing UTD and supporting MDEC. According to Linares, MDEC has been aggressive in their attempt to recruit teachers, and he has received flyers in the mail.

The Freedom Foundation is a conservative think tank funded by billionaire organizations like the Charles Koch Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. Rusty Brown, director of special projects at the Freedom Foundation, wrote SB 256.

Because Florida is already a “right-to-work” state, where workers are not required to be a union member or pay union dues to receive representation under a collective bargaining agreement, the state has a low union enrollment rate. In 2022, only 4.5% of workers in Florida were union members.

“We can lose all of these other things that people have taken for granted, honestly,” Linares said. “Because, regardless of you being in UTD or not, you get the same benefits.”

SB 256 additionally requires public-sector unions, excluding police and firefighter unions, from those same protections to undergo annual audits, prohibits automatic dues deductions from paychecks, and mandates language on authorization cards reaffirming that Florida is a right-to-work state.

In May, the Florida Education Association (FEA) sought an emergency injunction to stop SB 256 from going into effect but was unsuccessful. FEA is still challenging the legislation in federal court and working on a state challenge as well.

If the union does not meet the 60% threshold, it would have to go through a recertification process, and a separate vote would be held to show that at least 30% of the bargaining unit wants a union to represent them. The union has never had to have such a vote since it was founded in 1974.

“I absolutely believe that this is part of the broader effort by DeSantis to undermine public education in the state,” Linares said. 

In 2018, a similar law in Florida was passed that required teacher’s unions to have 50% of members paying dues. The teachers’ union in Jefferson County was disbanded and decertified as a result.

“It would kind of be a pretty big warning to the country because Miami-Dade is the third-largest district in the U.S. … What happens here shows other districts throughout the country what could happen,” Linares said. “I would worry that if they’re able to pull this off here in Miami-Dade, it’s going to set off a wave of the same type of action in the rest of Florida and then in other states that have weak legal labor protections, like many of the Southern states. I fear that if they pull this off here in Miami, the state and local governments in all of these other places will want to try to do the same thing to their units.”