Welcome to another edition of the Florida AFL-CIO’s weekly Florida Labor Letter for the week of 5/28. This week marks the end of May, meaning that it is almost the official start of the Summer Season! Students and educators rejoice for hopefully some more alarm-less sleep!

We hope you are ready to kick back and relax in the sun wherever you are reading from! I’m sure not (I’ve still got summer school), and our legislators aren’t either (they’ve still got summer work surprisingly), but we hope that somewhere in there you’ve got some time scheduled away for a good beach read. Here’s the week’s news to get you started.

🏛️Legislative News

The Budget Finally Passes (Out of the Legislature)

Long overdue and long anticipated, the legislature has finally passed the negotiated 2026 General Appropriations Act A.K.A The State Budget!

After ironing out the details over the last week, the bill was finally “laid on the table” for public review and analysis on Sunday, March 24th, totaling a whopping $114.4 Billion dollars of appropriations. The actual spending total though is several billions higher however, following additional authorizations for things such as state worker health insurance and more.

After its 72-hour designated “cooling off” period, both chambers reconvened today to debate the budget and vote on its final passage, where the budget passed 99-6 in the House and 35-0 in the Senate.

What’s Next?

Passed out of both chambers, the budget now heads to the Governor’s desk, where Governor DeSantis may carve out or reduce specific budget items such as member’s individual local projects with the power of the line-item veto. This is worth mentioning as despite the budget being the usual legislative finish line, our legislative leaders have other plans…

Special Session F Adds ANOTHER Inning to the Legislative Ballgame

We got any baseball fans in the audience? A fun fact about baseball is that contrary to popular belief, not every game goes to 9 innings. Depending on the league or situation, America’s pastime has rules where players and fans can save themselves some time and energy by having a clearly decided game end early, or in the cases of a real nail-biter, add extra innings until a winner is declared. No matter the extension or the reduction though, fans and players can at least leave having attended a full effort ball-game with a clear winner and ending.

The Florida legislature is not supposed to operate like a baseball game, but this year it has started to feel like one, without the fun of a clear winner, equal effort, or ending. Since March, we’ve watched extra innings added for all sorts of matters, like sudden and un-democratic redistricting, failed revivals of AI regulation and “vaccine freedom,” and most frequently to add time to pass the now long overdue Budget, which thankfully comes to a close today.

But despite now checking off their only mandated duty and a campaign trail eagerly calling, another special session has been added to the calendar, pushing the finish line away at the last minute. This extra inning was added courtesy our Governor who announced this week he is finally ready to take up the issue already efforted by the House and rejected by the Senate and Governor this last session: Property Tax Removal.

Set to start run from Monday, June 1st to Saturday, June 6th, legislators have been called to consider a new Senate and Governor endorsed SB 2F and SB 4F. There’s a lot at work in these bills, which we look forward to breaking down next week, but here are the key considerations to keep in mind for right now:

The Old
- The proposed measure continues the legislature’s attempt to phase out all property taxes on primary residences, a key source of revenue for local governments to be able to provide public services like parks, transportation, education, emergency services, and more.
- Recent analysis from the Florida Association of Counties puts the total cost to local government services across the state to be 3.6 Billion dollars in the first year alone, almost doubling in the subsequent year.
The New
- The governor’s latest proposed initiative also seeks to mandate and restrict how local government would be able to spend their money to a select few categories, stripping local autonomy from counties and further violating their home rule.
The Political
- The FL House has already made eight previous attempts at property tax reform during the regular legislative session, ultimately only passing the ill fated HJR 203, which was declared dead on arrival and left unconsidered and criticized by both the Florida Senate and Governor.
  - Property tax was a keystone issue that exemplified the lack of co-operation and communication between the legislative chambers and governor, and the House Speaker continues to be positioned opposite Governor DeSantis as recently as during redistricting.
- Adjourning without comment today on the newly called Special Session, The House has remained silent and has not yet filed any companion bills on the Senate and Governor’s new initiative.

3 months after its original session conclusion, things still have yet to cool down with this legislature, and it remains as unpredictable as ever, and though they are set to return next Monday, we will have to see see if this issue becomes one of the most important of the campaign trail or if it finally fizzles out amidst frustrated fueding.

🍊Florida Labor News

Florida AFL-CIO Endorses Jose Javier Rodriguez for Attorney General

ICMYI: Your state federation received headlines when we officially kicked off our Labor 2026 campaign with an endorsement of Jose Javier Rodriguez for our next Attorney General!

You can read more about the endorsement in depth on our website post, but in summary, Javier Rodriguez (better known by his initials of JJR) is running against incumbent Attorney General, James Uthmeier, and his early endorsement was made after screening and consideration by the members of our FL AFL-CIO COPE Committee earlier this week.

As it relates to JJR’s credentials as a fighter for our workers, our Director of Politics and Public Policy Rich Templin put it best:

“JJR has one of the strongest and most proven records of service for Florida’s working families. He was a staunch ally and champion in the Florida House and Senate and as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training of the United States and as an accomplished lawyer in his professional career defending thousands of workers in the courts. Florida’s workers and consumers couldn’t ask for a more qualified or principled Attorney General.“

We are excited to get behind JJR as the first of many candidates on the ballot who we will work to get elected this year, and we look forward to our Upcoming COPE Convention, where our labor family will together aim to make sure that working families are mobilized behind the candidates that will best represent and fight for us this election.

Want a preview of what’s to come? Head over to our Convention 2026 page to see the latest general agenda for the weekend at large!

✊Solidarity Spotlight

Florida’s AFSCME Flight Paramedics Land a Big Victory in Grievance Filing

Looking for a good story of Solidarity this week? Here’s one from our brothers, sisters, and kin in AFSCME Green! As reported by AFSCME’s own Mark McCullough this week:

For four members of Local 260 (AFSCME Florida), their first union contract helped them get the compensation they earned over years of missed meal breaks.

Over the years, [Paramedic Heath] Schmidt said management told him and his team not to even bother clocking out for lunch. That would have been fine except they discovered earlier this year that the time was still being deducted from their paycheck — though they never took those meal breaks. They also discovered that, over the years, similar issues were found and resolved at other sites in Florida.

Schmidt and the three other members brought in Local 260 President Paul Tucker and AFSCME Florida staff to find a solution. Ultimately, they filed a grievance requesting lost pay for three years of unpaid meal breaks — well over $5,000 for each of the four members.

After reviewing the grievance, UF Health agreed with Local 260 and the four members will see the money in this month’s paychecks. And they are not done — Local 260 is already pursuing problems found in shift differential pay and more.

🗓️On the Horizon

Statewide
- Week of June 1st: Budget Special Session “F” on Property Tax
  - We’ve officially gone farther in the special session numbers than last year! Next Monday, as explored above, we will find out whether this special session actually lasts the week, or whether the Florida House intends to reject the Senate and Governor’s attempt at property tax elimination in the same way they received in March. Stay tuned!
- June 13th – June 14th: 2026 Florida AFL-CIO COPE Endorsing Convention
  - Another election year means another COPE Convention! As the 2026 mid-terms fast approach, so does our excitement to gather and debate the best direction for Florida’s working families. Look forward to screening and endorsing candidates, debating issues, resolutions and more amongst your labor siblings statewide!
  - Head over to our newly updated COPE 2026 page on our website for more information on credentials for delegates, travel booking, resolution submission, and more!
- First Monday of every Month: FLARA Monthly Meetings:
  - The Florida Alliance of Retired Americans (FLARA) invites any and all to attend their monthly zoom meetings. FLARA meets on the first Friday of every month at 10 AMEST, and features guest speakers and relevant information for retirees from national and state governments as well as important information on demonstrations, partner activities, etc.
  - Those interested in attending FLARA meetings should contact tammy@flara.org in order to get the monthly.
Regional
- South Florida
  - Saturday, May 30th – 2nd Annual Broward Teacher’s Union 5k Run for Education!
    - Join the Broward County Teacher’s Union in Hollywood, FL for a day of fun in the sun with a cause! This 5K aims to fundraise crucial dollars for the Broward School Community, with all money raised going directly back to Broward County’s Public Schools, funding programs and resources that help students thrive! You can learn more, register, and donate here!

🛠️Business Board

FREE Trainings from the National AFL-CIO: The National AFL-CIO provides free virtual training sessions leaders and members of all of its State Federations, Area Labor Federations, CLCs and Affiliates. This list of training courses is updated regularly and covers a myriad of topics such as honing political skills, issue specific communications, and more. This page is updated regularly, so please visit and bookmark this link to stay informed and learn more about what is currently available to sign-up for in order to take your labor skills and knowledge to the next level!

📸Bonus Bulletin

Conan Repairs the Commencement Speech: AI Cannot Replace Us!

Last we we ended with the hilarious schadenfreude from footage of wealthy billionaires facing boos as the result of trying to use graduation commencements to praise or include the arrival of AI in the workplace to an audience of newly graduated workers facing increasingly scarier futures from AI’s potential and use to supplant them.

Though it is always rewarding to see the working class shock reality into the faces of the wealthy interests, the commencement circuit this week took a lighter turn when Harvard University grads received a much more empathetic and lighthearted view from comedian Conan O’Brian, who shared his own uncertainties on AI by letting them know “Despite your fears, AI can not replace you.” His warm speech aimed to inspire the workers of tomorrow to focus on humility and embrace solidarity with each other rather than embrace the trend towards more narcissistic and pessimistic attitudes that tend to dominate the media. Now that’s a message we can get behind! You can watch the speech on C-SPAN here.

That concludes this week’s roundup! Thank you for reading and as always, In Solidarity!

Got any tips, actions, or messages you’d like to see in this email?

Please email Daniel Diaz at ddiaz@flaflcio.org