{"id":416,"date":"2026-05-12T11:04:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=416"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:04:39","slug":"teachers-unions-could-disappear-under-desantis-union-busting-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=416","title":{"rendered":"Teachers unions could disappear under DeSantis \u2018union busting\u2019 law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Florida\u2019s teachers unions must now fight for their survival under a tough, new state law that makes it far harder for them to remain active and will force live-or-die votes as soon as this summer.<\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: Instead of traveling extensively, should we help our kids financially?<\/a><\/p>\n

The president of the statewide teachers union said he has \u201cgreat concern\u201d that a number of local unions will soon shutter and that thousands of teachers could lose representation.<\/p>\n

The union that represents teachers in Seminole County Public Schools is one that this summer faces a recertification election, or a vote to prove it has enough support to represent the district\u2019s teachers.<\/p>\n

Under the new law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed May 1, math is not on the union\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

The Seminole Education Association now counts 33% of the county\u2019s teachers as members. But in the upcoming recertification vote, it must win more than half the votes from all of Seminole teachers, who number about 4,400. Under the old law, it needed to win only a majority of those who voted, a far easier threshold to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if everybody, 100% of our members, vote yes, we are decertified after the election,\u201d said Thomas Bugos, the Seminole union\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

If decertified, the union can no longer represent teachers in salary negotiations or other matters. School districts could then decide on their own whether to offer teachers raises and, if so, how big the pay hikes should be.<\/p>\n

Bugos said the future looks \u201cscary\u201d for teachers unions, and the teachers they represent, because of the new law. He views the new rules as part of an ongoing state attack on public education.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe teachers that have dedicated their lives to this \u2014 we\u2019re forcing these hoops and obstacles in front of them to make their job even more difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, the union for Orange County Public Schools, Central Florida\u2019s largest school district, faces a vote this summer too. But it has boosted membership to 60%, so it hopes it will survive the election.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jonathan Martin, the Fort Myers Republican who sponsored the bill, said during the legislative session that the changes would hold teachers unions more accountable to the people they claim to represent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese unions are all over the state of Florida, these collective bargaining groups, where the class that they represent doesn\u2019t want to be a member of that class. They don\u2019t. They\u2019re not voting. They don\u2019t care,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n

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When he signed the bill, DeSantis said the new law would \u201cprovide once and for all for the decertification of partisan teacher unions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Education Association, the statewide union, has long supported Democrats and opposed DeSantis and other Republicans\u2019 education policies. DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature have pushed other measures to curtail teacher unions\u2019 power. In 2023, for example, the state ended payroll deductions for union dues, making it harder for unions to guarantee those payments, and increased the membership threshold to avoid recertification elections.<\/p>\n

The conservative Freedom Foundation, an organization that played a role in the law\u2019s creation, celebrated its passage.<\/p>\n

Read more Osceola teacher named finalist for Florida\u2019s Teacher of the Year award<\/a><\/p>\n

The changes were \u201clong overdue\u201d to combat \u201czombie unions\u201d that do not really represent most of a district\u2019s teachers, said Aaron Withe, the group\u2019s CEO, in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA handful of activists shouldn\u2019t control workplace representation for hundreds of employees who never asked for it,\u201d Withe said.<\/p>\n

The law, which also applies to nursing and municipal workers unions, exempts unions that represent police officers, firefighters and corrections officers, whose leaders typically support Republicans. Lawmakers who opposed it called it a \u201cunion busting\u201d measure.<\/p>\n

Local unions can avoid a recertification vote by having 60% of teachers paying dues, which automatically re-certifies the chapter.<\/p>\n

But Andrew Spar, the president of the statewide union, said via text that a majority of local teachers unions now fall short of that threshold.<\/p>\n

Teachers unions in Florida have gained 4,000 new members since the bill passed the Legislature in March, he said, but there\u2019s still \u201cgreat concern\u201d that many unions could be decertified this year because of the new law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Governor and his activist administration are being clear that they do not care about the workers of this state,\u201d Spar said.<\/p>\n

Unions are now trying to encourage more teachers to sign up.<\/p>\n

Orange\u2019s teachers union recently surpassed the 60% threshold, but not in time to avoid an election this summer, said Clinton McCracken, the union\u2019s president. But if it can maintain that membership, it wouldn\u2019t face another recertification election next year.<\/p>\n

Dylan Reinsel, an AP U.S. History teacher at St. Cloud High School, urged his fellow teachers to join the union in a video shared this month by the Osceola County teachers union. In the video, Reinsel touted union benefits and said the DeSantis administration wants to tamp down the influence of those who push back against its policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re counting on people sitting it out, so let\u2019s prove them wrong. Join, stay in, talk to the teacher next door. Because once it\u2019s gone, you\u2019re on your own,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Burgos, the Seminole union president, said the new voting threshold is unfair. After all, plenty of the lawmakers who voted for the bill got into office winning votes from a majority of those who cast ballots on election day, not a majority of all voters in their districts.<\/p>\n

And it has made unions focus on signing up more teachers instead of negotiating for better salaries and benefits, he said.<\/p>\n

McCracken agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were representing our members well and with fidelity and fighting for a better life for all of our teachers, which actually improves the learning conditions of our students. And for no reason, we have this extra burden on top of us from Tallahassee that was unnecessary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more Tiger Woods\u2019 lawyer and prosecutors are set to argue over prescription records in Florida DUI case<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida teachers unions could disappear under new DeSantis ‘union busting’ law, critics say, with a number of local unions facing crucial votes this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTeachers unions could disappear under DeSantis \u2018union busting\u2019 law - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=416\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teachers unions could disappear under DeSantis \u2018union busting\u2019 law - 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