Unions Get Shafted

Enough Florida Republican Senators were sane enough not to want to repeat Wisconsin by passing the pointless union paycheck check off legislation proposed by corporatist Jon Thrasher. The union fee check off was offered by the Florida House to the Florida Senate. The Senate accepted. This will only affect state union employees.

Mike Williams, president of the AFL-CIO, said private and public unions will band together to fight this.

"They have to resort to behind closed door deals to accomplish what they can't get done in the open,'' said Mike Williams, president of the AFL-CIO, whose union is one of several at currently impasse with the state over wages and benefits agreements with state workers. "It's an abuse of the system.''

He said that rarely does the state and labor organization come to agreement without coming to an impasse, so he predicts that if this provisions stays in law, the future strategy in all collective bargaining negotiations will be to force all negotiations to impasse and then have the legislature settle it and ban all union dues check offs.

He said that if lawmakers think they can divide the coalition of labor groups by targeting just state workers in this provision, they are wrong. "The coalition is are steadfast in focusing on a unified front,'' he said.

Below is the document of the House offer to the Senate. The only good news is a 5 percent wage increase has been proposed. State workers haven't received a pay increase since 2006. The bad news it needs Rick Scott's approval.

Load Doc