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Dear John,
Today Senators decided to continue their attacks on workers and teachers’ unions by passing SB 1746--despite debate this week from multiple Senate leaders on how unnecessary and punitive the bill is. Yesterday, the Florida House passed the companion bill, HB 1471, out of its final committee.
The bill in its current form does fix the audit provisions that were included. However, amendments supported by FEA and the Florida AFL-CIO that would have removed redundancies and were not considered in the House and were defeated in the Senate.
Had these amendments been adopted, they would remove unnecessary and burdensome regulations that force local unions to spend significant time and resources completing administrative paperwork instead of fighting for increased wages and better working conditions for educators. Nobody should be surprised these amendments didn’t pass as the intent of the bill in the first place is to create an administrative burden for local unions.
It’s important to note that Republican Senator Gruters, who sponsored our amendments, was lobbied against by Senate leadership to not place the amendments up for a vote. We want to thank Senator Gruters for pushing back and bringing the amendments up for a vote despite pressure to not do so. Let me be clear, we had the votes to pass our two amendments and once that was clear, the Senate leadership killed the amendment by threatening republican senators who wanted to stand with us. The senate leadership showed no concern for the amendments until they knew we had the votes. The legislative process is stacked against us--and it’s imperative that we make sure our legislative leaders know we are watching and paying attention.
Despite the pressure, we also want to give a huge shout out to Sens. Bradley, Garcia, Rodriguez and Simon who joined with Senator Gruters and every Democrat in the Senate to vote for these amendments. When the bill came to the floor without the amendments that would help educators like, you Sens. Bradley, Gruters and Simon joined with all the Democrats to vote no, Senator Garcia was not present for this morning’s vote. Finally, we appreciate the FEA members who traveled from all parts of the state this week to speak against this bill in its final House committee.
Our work continues. We know the system is unfair and we know we must change the rules of the game. To change the rules, we need legislation and to get the legislation, we need be to part of the politics. We will continue to keep you informed of as this bill moves through the process. And we will continue to send a strong message to those who claim to stand with us but who falter when it matters.
Thank you for your collective action as we continue our fight. Our greatest strength is our numbers; please talk to your colleagues today about joining their union. When educators join together in greater numbers than ever before, then we will have the power to make Florida a place where all of us are valued, given the freedom to do our jobs without political interference, and earn a living wage.
In solidarity,
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