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Years of diligence paid off for the Mackinac Center’s Workers for Opportunity initiative recently when Tennessee and Florida enacted laws to protect workers from union overreach.
Workers for Opportunity joined Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May as he signed a measure known as paycheck protection, ending the practice of having schools automatically deduct union dues from teachers’ paychecks. Florida taxpayers will no longer foot the bill for union dues collection, and teachers will be protected from having schools take money out of their paychecks without permission.
In addition to protecting Florida’s taxpayers, the law bolsters transparency requirements for unions and increases their accountability. Unions will have to submit audited financial statements to state officials, making the statements a matter of public record. Union members will be notified each year of the total cost of annual dues. The law also increases the percentage of employee membership a union must hold to stave off a recertification election. The threshold is now 60% of workers covered under a contract rather than a bare majority. The change is a small step toward remedying the problem that even people who do not support a union are bound by its contract.
Gov. DeSantis included these provisions in his January Teachers Bill of Rights proposal. But the work on these reforms began in 2019, when Workers for Opportunity started helping key lawmakers and the administration develop model legislation. These relationships proved powerful as the momentum for reform increased.
The outcome was not assured, however. During the bill’s final hearing, union leaders packed hearing rooms with vocal and well-organized protesters. The Workers for Opportunity team, working with key allies from the Florida-based James Madison Institute, used traditional and digital outreach tools to spread the word about the bill’s importance and the positive effects that would come from its passage.
Several national and local unions filed suit once the governor signed the bill into law, threatening to undo years of hard work. Gov. DeSantis’ administration was ready and waiting, thanks in part to our warning. The Workers for Opportunity team helped Gov. DeSantis fight that challenge, and we continue working with his administration as unions try to block the law.
Florida wasn’t the only victory for Workers for Opportunity this session. Two bills passed in Tennessee made monumental strides for worker freedom in the Volunteer State.
Workers for Opportunity paved the way for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to sign a first-in-the-nation law linking state economic incentives to private- ballot protections. The law secures Tennessee workers’ right to decide union representation in secret-ballot elections, rather than through public card signings, often monitored by union representatives. The law, which Gov. Lee signed May 11, frees people at workplaces receiving taxpayer dollars from being strong-armed by union tactics. This gets taxpayers out of the business of funding union coercion.
The reform almost didn’t make it into law. A vote in the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee stripped the paycheck protection clause out of the bill just days before it was slated for a final House floor vote. The Workers for Opportunity team worked tirelessly through a weekend to pass information and resources to key lawmakers and the general public before a final Monday floor hearing. Our friends at the Tennessee-based Beacon Center responded to our call for help and provided support for the provision.
When Monday came, the House passed the bill, with paycheck protection reinstated by the narrowest possible vote.
Support for paycheck protection grew in reaction to a union self-enrichment measure that we called attention to as the law was being crafted. One part of the bill gave teachers a substantial pay raise – the biggest in state history. But the bylaws of the Tennessee Education Association allow union leaders to impose a special assessment on members whenever teachers receive a raise. “This bill is a pay raise meant for teachers,” Workers for Opportunity emphasized in our outreach to media and legislators, “not unions.” The message helped restore paycheck protection.
The historic victories in each state will benefit teachers there. But they also generate momentum across the nation for similar pro-worker reforms. The legislative session for 2023 is over in many states, but we are already exploring opportunities to build on these wins in 2024 and beyond.
