MIAMI.– The Florida Senate approved a bill that imposes new rules of survival on teachers’ unions and other public employees, by requiring greater internal electoral participation to maintain their legal registration.
The new legislation establishes that at least the 50% of workers with the right to vote They must participate in the union election. For the organization to maintain its legal power, a majority of those voters must support it, according to the new rule.
This rule applies to teachers and other state employees, but excludes police, firefighters and paramedics. Opponents describe this exception as unfair and unconstitutional.
To understand this new measure, you have to look ahead to 2023. That year, Florida passed a law requiring public sector unions (again, excluding first responders) to maintain at least one 60% of its eligible members paying dues.
If they fell below that percentage, the union automatically lost its certification and had to undergo a new recertification process. This caused dozens of unions (representing tens of thousands of workers such as nurses, bus drivers and teachers) to fight for their survival.
What changes with the new 2026 bill?
The new bill further tightens the rules for those recertification elections.
- The new rules: Now, for a union to survive a recertification election, it will be required to at least 50% of all eligible members participate in the vote. Of those who vote, the majority must approve of the union.
- The debate on exemptions: As in previous laws, police, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians (first responders) are exempt. Critics point out that this exemption is unconstitutional and purely political, since police and fire unions tend to support conservative politicians, while teachers unions tend to clash with them.
Promoters’ argument
Senator Jonathan Martin, the main promoter of the measure, assured that the idea is eliminate unions that do not listen to their members.
To illustrate his point, the lawmaker cited a conflict in his Lee County district where the teachers association sued to block a financial incentive plan aimed at teachers who agreed to teach in low-performing schools.
Opposition rejection
Democratic legislators affirmed that the initiative is a direct attack to weaken teachers’ groups.
Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith recalled the previous law of 2023 that already threatened the status of unions with few paying members.
Smith said the current bill represents the final blow in a years-long campaign to eradicate public sector unions in Florida.
Split votes
The count in the plenary session ended with twenty-five votes in favor and fourteen against. The scrutiny revealed a clear division within the majority party.
Five Republican senators —Alexis Calatayud, Ileana García, Ed Hooper, Ana María Rodríguez and Corey Simon— joined their voices with Democrats and independent Jason Pizzo to oppose the rule.
Despite this dissidence, conservative support was enough to achieve approval in the Upper House.
