University union sues state over membership threshold

The union representing Florida’s public colleges and universities and its FAMU chapter have filed suit against the state, claiming a law requiring 60% membership for a union to maintain certification violates the Florida Constitution. 

The Florida A&M University chapter of the United Faculty of Florida’s lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Court, names as defendant the Public Employee Relations Commission and cites SB 256, approved during the 2023 legislative session, and SB 1746, approved in March. 

SB 256 prohibits agencies from deducting union dues from paychecks, requires organizations to go through recertification if their membership drops below 60%, and imposes other restrictions on unions. The law took effect in October.

The union says it is threatened with decertification under the threshold law, which requires a membership count above the “arbitrarily set” 60% of any bargaining unit. Previously, the threshold was 50%.

SB 1746 requires union members to sign a form with the government to be counted as a member, and went into effect in March, immediately after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law. 

“As a result, UFF-FAMU is now threatened with decertification, which would mean it would lose its legal authorization to be the bargaining unit for faculty at FAMU and that the FAMU faculty members would lose the protection of their collective bargaining agreement,” the union argued in a news release.

Not ‘right-to-work’

The United Faculty of Florida, FAMU UFF, St. Lucie Education Association, James Muchovej, and Eric Graff make up the entire list of plaintiffs. 

Muchovej, a FAMU professor, has been a UFF-FAMU member since 1992 and Graff, a teacher and media specialist in St. Lucie County schools, joined the St. Lucie Education Association, representing public school employees, in 1988 and has paid dues on a “substantially continuous basis” ever since, according to the complaint.

Both are considered members by their unions but have not signed the government form mandated by SB 1746. They do not plan to sign because they “object to the description of Florida as “a right-to-work state,” the complaint says.

“Plaintiff Muchovej and Plaintiff Graff also object to the Form’s statements overall because they are designed to disincentivize people from joining the Union,” the suit adds.

The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief against the defendant, the Public Employees Relations Commission, the government agency that adjudicates and facilities mediation in public-sector labor disputes. 

The plaintiffs argue that the law violates the state constitutional right for employees to participate in collective bargaining. 

The plaintiffs argue three points:

• That is unconstitutional to require a supermajority for union recognition rather than a majority.
• That the laws “threaten to nullify the protections afforded by existing collective-bargaining agreements before the date of their bargained-for expiration.” 
• That the required 60% membership threshold violates “Florida’s constitutionally guaranteed ‘Right to Work,’ which prohibits the State, employers, and employee organizations from conditioning the exercise of employees’ collective-bargaining rights on the payment of union dues.”

UFF-FAMU President Samique March-Dallas said it is “ridiculous that the Legislature unilaterally gets to decide that they know better than the majority of employees in the field every day.”

“It is frustrating that the very employer that cannot adequately let us know the size of our bargaining unit holds the future of our union in their hands,” March-Dallas said in a UFF news release. “We are determined to save our bargaining ability, our bargaining agreement, and our rights to a say in workplace guidance.”

UFF President Teresa Hodge pointed to other actions by the state government that could be concerning to workers. 

“Incrementally, the Governor and State Board of Education are stripping away workers’ rights, whether it’s by not allowing them to be represented, by banning third-party arbitration, or by taking over schools and limiting tenure,” Hodge said in a news release. 

“All the while, the Governor’s own appointees are running roughshod over our college and university systems — look no further than the books being thrown away at New College or the money being thrown away in the same fashion by the former head of UF.”