Legislative

Vote NO on SB 7030

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TOMORROW, Wednesday, March 20th, SB 7030 will be up for its next vote in the Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee. Instead of properly addressing the needs facing Florida’s teachers, staff and students, this bill is a quick and inexpensive fix that ignores the systemic failure facing our state’s education system.

If your Senator is listed below call them NOW and urge them to stand up for school safety by voting NO on SB 7030.

🚨Tom Lee📞 (850) 487-5020  
🚨Keith Perry📞 (850) 487-5008  
🚨Aaron Bean📞 (850) 487-5004  
🚨Janet Cruz📞 (850) 487-5018  
🚨Ed Hooper📞 (850) 487-5016  
🚨Travis Hutson📞 (850) 487-5007  
🚨Linda Stewart📞 (850) 487-5013
🚨Annette Taddeo📞 (850) 487-5040

If school safety was truly a concern for the Legislature, they would choose to support funding for critical services such as resource officers for every school and a sufficient number of trained mental health professionals. This bill ignores the important role guidance counselors, school psychologists and social workers have in the education system.

Professional educators know, and the voting public agrees, that teachers should not be armed with guns; instead they should be armed with better salaries and working conditions.

Tell the members of the Senate Committee on Infrastructure and Security NOT to arm teachers and to vote NO on SB 7030.

  • Student and staff safety is an issue of the utmost importance; we must address the underlying causes of bullying and violence on school campuses including mental health issues.
  • Florida’s schools are woefully understaffed with average student to staff ratios of 458:1, 1,951:1 and 2,003:1 respectively for school counselors, psychologists, and social workers.
  • The National Association of School Resource Officers says,
    “If a school determines the need for armed security, properly trained school resource officers (SROs) are the only school personnel of any type who should be armed. Our organizations believe that arming educators would cause more harm than good.”
  • Each of Florida’s 67 counties has unique needs, and each county knows best how to invest in ensuring student safety. The legislature must support local control and allow for flexibility in how school safety money is spent.
  • Please oppose any legislation that would allow more guns carried on campus by anyone other than trained law enforcement.
  • The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Commission presented dozens and dozens of recommendations towards school safety. Arming teachers should be the last recommendation considered by the legislature – not the first.
  • Teachers have a paramount duty to educate our students. They already take on more responsibilities than just teaching – they shouldn’t be asked to handle a firearm to protect their students as well.

Call the Senate Committee on Infrastructure and Security and tell them NOT to arm teachers and to vote NO on SB 7030


🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 2

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The Legislature continued their attack on Florida’s future in week two of the 2019 Legislative Session. Thankfully for future generations intrepid activists have been sent back in time to stop the impending apocalypse threatening the state.

🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 1

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The 2019 Legislative Session started with attacks on the environment, rights at work and public education. Our only hope for the future lies with the brave Working Families Lobby Corps activists who have been sent to Tallahassee to fight back against certain apocalypse.

Vote NO on HB 13

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TOMORROW, Wednesday, March 6th, an attack on the ability of public employees to fight for better wages, benefits and conditions of employment will be up for a vote.

Call your State Representatives NOW and urge them to stand up for Florida’s workers by voting NO on HB 13. Click here to find your local Florida House member.

If your State Rep is one of the following members of the House Oversight, Transparency and Public Management Subcommittee they need to hear from you TODAY!

🚨Scott Plakon 📞 (850) 717-5029 
🚨Clay Yarborough 📞 (850) 717-5012 
🚨Kimberly Daniels 📞 (850) 717-5014 
🚨Vance Arthur Aloupis 📞 (850) 717-5115 
🚨Alex Andrade 📞 (850) 717-5002 
🚨Bobby DuBose 📞 (850) 717-5094 
🚨Anna V.Eskamani 📞 (850) 717-5047 
🚨Javier E. Fernández 📞 (850) 717-5114 
🚨Jason Fischer 📞 (850) 717-5016 
🚨Margaret Good 📞 (850) 717-5072 
🚨Erin Grall 📞 (850) 717-5054 
🚨James ”J.W.” Grant 📞 (850) 717-5064 
🚨Chip LaMarca 📞 (850) 717-5093 
🚨Cary Pigman 📞 (850) 717-5055 
🚨Rene Plasencia 📞 (850) 717-5050 

This bill is devastating to negotiating rights that have been defined by existing collective bargaining agreements. Public employees would now be burdened by using personal leave to sit at the table with management, or have to forego fighting for better terms of employment altogether. 

HB 13 will require all future collective bargaining agreements to omit compensation for union activities, and under no circumstances will these provisions be allowed for public employees in future contracts.

Call your State Representative and tell them to vote NO on HB 13.

We need the Florida House of Representatives to say NO to this attempt to limit our voice in the workplace.

2019 Legislative Updates Trailer

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Stand up for Florida’s working people with your favorite legislative update series! 

We’re back this year delivering you weekly updates on all of the critical issues affecting you and your family this legislative session.

Sign up for email alerts at www.flaflcio.org, and stay tuned for the first episode next week! Solidarity.

Join the Working Families Lobby Corps

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As interim committee weeks begin for the 2019 Legislative Session, are you ready to take action at the capitol to defend the rights of working people in our state?

The Working Families Lobby Corps is now entering its 9th year of holding our elected officials accountable all session long, and your voice will help defend workers rights in Tallahassee.

Click here to learn more about our WFLC program and how you and your union can make a difference in the legislative process this year.

RELEASE: An Agenda for Florida’s Workers

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For Immediate Release: June 7, 2018
Contacts:

Elbert Garcia, New Florida Majority, Elbert@NewFloridaMajority.org or (718) 930-9497

David Fernandez, Florida AFL-CIO, dfernandez@flaflcio.org or (850) 570-9953

Anna Susman, Berlin-Rosen, anna.susman@berlinrosen.com or (646) 200-5285

As Florida Governor’s and Legislative Races Heat Up, Worker Groups Release Bold Agenda to Bolster Workers’ Pay, Jobs

With economy growing but paychecks flat, groups say next governor must stand with working people or face political peril

With a high-stakes election around the corner, groups representing Florida’s workers — including the Miami Workers Center, the Florida AFL-CIO, New Florida Majority, Organize Florida and the Farmworker Association of Florida, among others — today released a Florida Workers’ Agenda calling on the next governor and the legislature to take bold action to improve jobs, wages, and working conditions for the state’s workers.

While Florida’s economy has been growing under Rick Scott, pay has been flat and living costs have been rising, leaving millions of families just a missed paycheck away from economic crisis. According to the United Way, 45% of Florida households can’t afford basic necessities. Orlando has the lowest median pay of any metropolitan area in the U.S. And in South Florida, poverty-wage jobs and rising housing costs are squeezing families hard.

Weak worker protections are a big part of the problem. Florida’s minimum wage is just $8.25 an hour, and has increased only 90 cents since 2009. And workers who are cheated in their paychecks, injured on the job, or laid off are left stranded. Florida has no state wage enforcement agency. Its unemployment insurance program is the stingiest in the U.S. And its workers comp protections for injured workers have been declared unconstitutionally inadequate by the Florida Supreme Court.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidates are meeting to debate in St. Petersburg on June 9 and in Miramar on June 11. The Republican candidates are debating in Tampa on June 28.

The Florida Workers’ Agenda outlines key reforms that the next governor—or the governor together with the legislature—should take to protect working families. The recommendations include:

  • Backing a 2020 ballot initiative to gradually raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour
  • Fighting attempts by the legislature to tie the hands of cities and counties from addressing worker needs
  • Getting the state back in the business of fighting wage theft by establishing state wage enforcement programs at the Department of Economic Opportunity and attorney general’s office
  • Fixing the state’s stingy unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation systems, which no longer provide meaningful safety nets for jobless and injured workers
  • Tackling the health and safety threats facing Florida’s workers, especially farmworkers
  • Promoting access to jobs for qualified workers with arrest or conviction records by “banning the box” in state hiring
  • Defending workers’ right to organize and join unions, and promoting decent pay for public servants like teachers and airport workers
  • Protecting immigrant workers
  • Fighting for workers’ civil rights and fighting forced arbitration of worker complaints
  • Opposing a ballot proposal to require a supermajority vote of the legislature to raise revenue in the future

“All Floridians deserve wages and conditions that reflect the value of their hard work and gives them the financial freedom to achieve their dreams,” said Moné Holder, senior program director for policy, advocacy & research at New Florida Majority (NewFM). “Working class families, especially communities of color that have been systematically kept at the margins, demand fair economic policies and lawmakers who will fight for our basic human rights and support an agenda that protects Florida’s workers.”

“The Florida AFL-CIO supports this worker agenda because it transcends the usual glittering generalities and broad attacks typically seen during elections season. The policies outlined in this agenda provide a framework for Florida’s struggling workers to meaningfully participate in our economy and hold decision makers accountable,” said Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy with the Florida AFL-CIO. Templin continued: “Florida’s workers and our economy deserve an unemployment insurance system that isn’t the worst in the nation, a workers’ compensation system that puts workers and employers over insurance profits, and local governments that are empowered to do what’s needed in their communities without the burdens of legislative preemption. The policy solutions in this agenda are vital for our state’s future and must be a part of the public discourse during this pivotal election season.”

“Workers are on the front lines of serving our communities’ needs every single day. They need to be the priority to ensure a thriving state with healthy families. It’s far past time elected officials stand with women and families and deliver for those making Florida work,” said Debbie Soto, board president, Organize Florida.

“Farmworkers do the essential work of feeding us.  They endure sweltering heat, biting insects, exposure to toxic agricultural chemicals, and dangers from accidents with unsafe farm equipment and hazardous workplace conditions, all in order to provide us cheap, affordable food in our grocery stores.  For the work they do, they deserve decent, livable wages; strong health and safety protections; and freedom from harassment, abuse, threats and retaliation.  Their lives and our food depend upon it,” said Tirso Moreno, general coordinator of the Farmworker Association of Florida.

“As an organization that defends the rights of low-wage and immigrant workers, Community Justice Project is in full support of this important agenda. We know all too well that workers in our communities are dealing with low wages, widespread wage theft, unjust work conditions, and continuous attacks on their right to organize. We need and deserve an economy that works for all of us,” said Oscar Londoño, Skadden Fellow & attorney with the Community Justice Project.

“From wage enforcement to unemployment insurance to workers comp, Florida’s protections for workers are today some of the weakest in all the 50 states,” said Paul Sonn, director of the National Employment Law Project Action Fund. “Florida’s working families deserve a governor who will fight for them by promoting good jobs with fair pay and safe workplaces for the state’s eight million workers.”

The groups releasing the agenda include:

Advocacy Partners Team

Community Justice Project

Farmworker Association of Florida

Florida AFL-CIO

Florida Immigrant Coalition

Miami Workers Center

National Employment Law Project Action Fund

New Florida Majority

Organize Florida

South Florida Interfaith Worker Justice

We Count

🚨LEG UPDATE: Florida Legislature Passes HB 7055

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UPDATE 6:30PM: In a prime example of how HB 7055 was rushed through the process, after passing the Senate earlier this afternoon the Florida House completed the final passage of this bill this evening. The bill now goes to Governor Scott’s desk to be signed into law.

As we have seen over the last week with the teachers strike in West Virginia, there is power in numbers. HB 7055 is another attempt to chip away at that collective power.

The Florida AFL-CIO has and will always fight for the rights of workers to have a voice in their workplace. There’s a reason why corporate special interests and the legislators they own constantly try to undermine unions. That’s because they know that the last line of defense in protecting our most fundamental democratic institutions like public education, workplace safety, and good jobs with fair wages is a united and organized work force.

Today was a sad day in Florida. Today’s vote pours salt in the wound of last year’s HB 7069 battle but we are confident that the people are waking up to this threat to our most cherished institution and are ready to escalate the fight.

Thank you to the thousands that called, emailed, and visited your legislators over the last nine weeks of legislative session. Your voices were heard, but our legislators still voted against public education and our teachers, and for wealthy school privatization interests in our state.

The struggle to protect our schools is far from over and we must increase our collective efforts in the months to come. Stay active, stay focused and stay tuned for updates in the coming days by signing up for legislative alerts on our website at www.flaflcio.org

UPDATE 5:00PM EST: The people of Florida learned a cruel truth today about the Florida Legislature. They learned that the corrupt forces of school privatization are controlling both chambers of the legislature and members of both parties. They also learned that those looking to profit by destroying education will do anything, especially destroying one of the most effective forces against them, our teachers and their unions.

HB 7055 will shift millions, eventually billions of tax payer dollars from traditional public schools to for-profit interests including private schools and charter schools and silence the teachers and their union who stand in opposition. Four brave Republicans, Senators Hukill, Grimsley, Lee and Young, stood up to these forces and stood strong with public education. That would have been enough.

Unfortunately one Democrat stood with school privatization. Senator Bill Montford voted for the bill. If he would have stood with our public schools and honored the principles of their party, this travesty would not have happened.

Since the bill was amended in the Senate, HB 7055 now goes back to the House for final passage before it goes to Governor Scott to be signed into law.

Before the House attempts to pass this bill again, make sure they hear from you. Use Florida Education Association (FEA) online tool to be connected with your local House member NOW!

Link: http://feaactioncenter.org/act/h-no-7055/

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