PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Anna Fusco, the president of the Broward Teachers Union, blamed Florida’s new “anti-union” legislation for requiring an election as part of the certification process.
Fusco said she views the new law as “egregious.” She also sees it as an attack on a “women-dominated profession,” and not just on the union as a bargaining representative, but on a process that ultimately benefits students.
“If you’ve got great working conditions in the schools, who does it benefit the most? The student. So when air conditioners are out, roofs are leaking, schools are dirty ... and there is no group there saying, ‘Look what’s happening! Let’s get things done! Let’s work together!’ That is what we are about,” Fusco said.
The new law has a requirement: “An employee organization that had less than 60 percent of the employees eligible for representation in the bargaining unit pay dues during its last registration period must petition the commission.” BTU did not meet it.
Fusco said the union was required to petition an election with the Public Employees Relations Commission, which has three members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Fusco described the new law as “egregious” and said The Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank, aims to weaken unions. The new law also put limits on payroll deductions.
“We do payroll deduction for everything, and there is nothing that is not payroll deduction, except now for union dues,” Fusco said about the school paycheck.
The next step for BTU’s certification is an election. PERC’s elections division conducts on-site and mail ballot elections for public employees. Fusco said the election isn’t set yet and BTU is also working with a Broward County Public Schools team. The ballot question is whether BTU should be certified or not. The union doesn’t have a challenging group.
“We are growing every single day in our membership,” Fusco said. “It’s just having conversations and making people more aware.”
Election in Miami-Dade
United Teachers of Dade, the union representing Miami-Dade County Public Schools employees, also fell short of the new requirement.
The union also had to petition a PERC recertification election. The ballot will have an opponent aiming to take its place: The Miami-Dade Education Coalition, which the new laws made possible with funding from The Freedom Foundation.
Brent Urbanik, the president of M-DEC, is a teacher. He said he was never part of UTD. His biography with the TERRA Environmental Research Institute, a M-DCPS magnet school, identifies him as a high school social studies teacher. He said The Freedom Foundation’ recruited him because of “alignment” on values.
“They just have a problem with the fact that the unions spend a lot of their money on partisan politics, and that’s what they really fight,” Urbanik said during This Week In South Florida.
Urbanik said teachers’ unions are “exploitative“ and engage in non-educational activities and M-DEC doesn’t believe UTD has been effective. He said M-DEC aims to have “a sole focus” on wages, benefits, and working conditions — without having to pay dues to union state and national affiliates.
Urbanik defined M-DEC’s relationship with The Freedom Foundation as “purely strategic.” He said the tally starts on Sept. 24.
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