MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. – The counting is underway in an unprecedented election for the Miami-Dade teachers union.
For the first time in its history, the union is fighting to survive a challenge to its very existence.
Inside a spare bland counting room in Tallahassee, the existence of Miami-Dade’s massive and only teachers union in history hangs on a hand count of ballots.
“Our membership knows exactly what they stand to lose and they will not allow us to lose that,” said United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez.
The ballot gave teachers the option to keep UTD as their representation, to replace it with a new organization called Miami-Dade Education Coalition, or to have no union representation at all.
“We feel like there’s a lot of shell games that happen by district,” said MDEC President Brent Urbanik, who added that they want to take politics out of the union.
But the Miami-Dade Education Coalition is borne of politics, bankrolled by the national conservative union-busting Freedom Foundation, which helped write the new Florida law that makes it harder for Florida’s labor unions to exist.
That’s what brought UTD to this unprecedented election in order to remain certified.
“If they are putting millions behind you in this effort, what are they asking from you,” Local 10′s Glenna Milberg asked Urbanik.
“Nothing,” he replied.
There was no MDEC rep inside the room watching the count, but there was a Freedom Foundation representative that Zoomed in.
There are representatives from UTD, as well as Miami-Dade school administrators, in Tallahasee watching the hand count.
The incoming impact from Tropical Storm Helene led officials to stop counting ballots for now. Officials have not said yet when they will resume counting ballots.