Is Gov. DeSantis pushing Florida’s teachers to go on strike? | Opinion
As Gov. DeSantis continues his relentless crusade to disband labor unions, he risks making existing laws unenforceable, including laws that prohibit public employees like teachers, nurses, bus drivers, and city and county employees from striking. This would open the floodgates for crippling, statewide strikes the moment any union-busting bill was signed into law to decertify their organizations. This could create an onslaught of labor instability across the state.
Over the years, the governor’s “anti-woke” smokescreen has worsened a teacher shortage, increased gender and race bias and demoralized families worried about the viability of their children’s educational future. The elected representatives who are supposed to protect all Floridians are exacerbating these issues by legislating regressive laws.
As it turns out, Florida’s government taking away power from the people isn’t all that new; it has just become more focused and rebranded over the years. For example, Florida teachers lost the right to strike in 1968, with the passing of the Public Employees Relations Act (PERA), which established collective bargaining for public employees (unions), including teachers, but prohibited them from striking. The rationale behind this decision was to ensure that essential public services, such as education, were not disrupted by strikes.
During the decades after PERA was enacted, legislators realized that unions were the guards that held elected officials’ feet to the fire and made them accountable for every action they took. That’s why some members of Florida’s Legislature have worked diligently to water down teachers’ collective-bargaining power by politicizing the classroom and engaging in culture wars that scapegoat teachers and gaslight parents.
Blinded by power and the intoxicating prospect of a White House bid, the governor and his allies have failed to realize that the language that governs “right to work” in Florida’s Constitution is only enforceable if there is an active certified bargaining agent that represents employees. The only thing keeping teachers and others from striking is the existence of the very structure the governor is trying to eliminate — labor unions.
Not only are unions critical to propelling meaningful discussions and advocating on behalf of their members, they also ensure employees receive adequate salary increases, health benefits, improvements in working conditions, paid vacations, a fair contract and retirement plans; all the things taken for granted and that would not be available for employees today without labor unions.
DeSantis could have chosen any issue to ramp up his likely run for the White House: the insurance disaster that is crippling the state; the housing affordability crisis that worsens every day; or the surge in gun-related deaths enabled by lax gun laws. Instead, he trying to destroy teachers’ unions and degrade quality public education in Florida as the springboard for his pending presidential campaign.
In all of this manufactured chaos, public employees are inspired by our Los Angeles school system brothers and sisters who successfully pushed back and won. We also say to all those who attempt to destroy the right to freedom of association, that we echo American patriot John Paul Jones who, when asked to surrender to the forces of a tyrannical government, answered, “[We] have not yet begun to fight.”
Karla Hernández-Mats is president of the United Teachers of Dade.
