Author: Staff

2024 Sine Die Legislative Brief

Staff |

The 2024 Legislative Session is in the history books. The big business special interests, largely sidelined over the past two years by the Governor’s culture wars, were back with a vengeance pushing legislation that will line their pockets at the expense of Florida’s working families. The Working Families Lobby Corps ran a strong program this year with hundreds of union members participating in the process over the nine weeks of Session. Check out our final Sine Die brief for the final status of some of the most important issues we tackled this year. While we weren’t always successful against the big business juggernaut and their cronies in the Capitol, we organized, we spoke out and we fought hard for Florida’s workers and their families. While the powers that be will continue to try and diminish our movement, they will never win and we will always continue to stand up for what is right.  

Download your 2024 Sine Die Legislative Brief here. The brief is a quick look at some of the bills that were tracked throughout the 2024 Florida Legislative Session and their final status.

It’s Time to Rise Up!

Staff |

Florida’s working families are fed up! They are tired of an unresponsive legislature that has done nothing to address the homeowners’ insurance crisis, lack of affordable housing, the crippling teacher shortage, lack of healthcare access and all the other real issues facing Florida’s workers and their families.  The 2024 elections are our time to act and get a new legislature that finally does the work of the people.

Our journey starts with the 2024 COPE Endorsing Convention!  The convention will be held June 22 – 23, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Miami Downtown, 400 South East 2nd Ave, Miami, FL

The COPE Convention shall be held to consider our political endorsements and our support or opposition for critical constitutional amendments on the ballot. 

The Hyatt Regency Miami hotel has provided us with a rate of $179.00 per night. Reservations must be made by May 28th, 2024, to receive the group rate. You may call the hotel directly – 305-358-1234 and reference code: G-KSIB or to make your reservation online, go here.

If you would like to bring a guest, please click here for our guest registration form.

If you have any questions about the convention or your credentials, please contact your union leadership or Helen Parker at hparker@flaflcio.org.

🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 9

Staff |

The Florida Legislature’s annual assault on Working Families has come to an end. The final week saw a flurry of legislation guaranteeing an apocalyptic future for Floridians, and as the smoke clears the dystopian reality is becoming clear. Check out our final video of the year to see the last minute attack unfold and how the activists form the Working Families Lobby Corps stood strong against the politicians and their big-money friends.

🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 8

Staff |

Florida’s Legislative Session is winding down, but the attacks on working families are still coming at full force. Committee meetings have ended so the final shape of our dark dystopian future is taking focus. The politicians and their big-industry allies continued the assault on public education, local control and healthcare access, setting up an apocalyptic reality for working Floridians. Thankfully, the Working Families Lobby Corps was there to meet their attack and help preserve Florida for future generations.

🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 7

Staff |

Week 7 of Legislative Session saw the politicians pull out all the stops in their attack on working families. Political tricks and last-minute amendments were used to be sure the big-money special interests were taken care of at the expense of Florida’s future generations. Public school safety and funding, access to healthcare and our constitutional rights were all under attack, and the Working Families Lobby Corps was there to fight back!

NO Vote on NAFTA

Staff |

American families have long suffered the consequences of bad trade deals negotiated behind closed doors. We lived the failures of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) when we saw good union jobs shipped overseas. The solution isn’t less trade, but better rules—rules that put America’s working families first.

For over two decades we have demanded NAFTA be renegotiated, but a new multi-million dollar campaign led by the Chamber of Commerce and other industry leaders threaten to write vital worker protections out of the plan once again. We must tell Congress there should be no vote until the agreement includes better wages, creates and secures jobs, protects our environment, and safeguards our democracy.

CALL 1-855-856-7545 AND TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE: NO VOTE UNTIL NAFTA IS FIXED

  • The current text provides more promises than it does concrete solutions. While there are some improvements to the original labor and environmental rules, and new ideas to boost U.S. content in traded goods, these modest changes aren’t enough to ensure working families will benefit.
  • The deal lacks effective provisions to reduce outsourcing in such key sectors as autos, aerospace, processed meat and foods, and call centers. Outsourcing remains a key concern for America’s working families. In a recent example, at the start of February, GM began laying off the first half of an announced layoff of 8,000 U.S. employees—and it has announced the closure of two assembly plants and two transmission plants in the United States and one in Canada, even as it expands operations in Mexico.
  • Some of the revised deal’s rules are even worse than the current NAFTA, including monopoly rights for pharmaceutical corporations that will keep drug prices sky high, and new rules that will undermine public interest protections, such as those that keep workers safe on the job.
  • Rather than accepting that this is the best the three countries can do, we’re urging the parties to go back to the table to fight for an ironclad agreement that working people can endorse and be proud of. That means an agreement that raises wages, protects workers and grows our economy.
  • Working people bear the burden of the continuing failures of NAFTA and its impact on our jobs, our environment, our communities and our democracy. We know the solution isn’t less trade, but better rules—rules that put families and communities first. That has been our goal since day one, and our standard to support any new deal.

Congress should not put the new NAFTA to a vote until working people and our needs have been prioritized in the agreement. There should be no vote on the NAFTA until it has been fixed and working people and our jobs have been secured. That means an agreement that raises wages, created and secures jobs, protects our environment and safeguards our democracy. For more information including a petition to tell Congress NO VOTE UNTIL NAFTA IS FIXED please visit the AFL-CIO’s page on Trade.

To download a flyer please click HERE.

Join the Working Families Lobby Corps

Staff |

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.

🎥 2019 Legislative Update Week 6

Staff |

We have passed the halfway point of Legislative Session and the attacks keep coming! Watch as the activists in the Working Families Lobby Corps fight back against the continued onslaught driven by big-money interests and the politicians who do their bidding. Our Constitutional rights, public education and school safety were again targeted by the Legislature and working Floridians were there to meet them on the battlefield that will determine our future!

🚨LEG ALERT: SB 7096 in the Appropriations Subcommittee Tuesday, April 9th

Staff |

On Tuesday, April 9th, SB 7096 will be heard in the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development. This bill is currently moving forward in both the Senate and the House and we need to take every opportunity available to tell our Senators to VOTE NO on this Anti-Voter Initiative Bill.

If your Senator is listed below, they sit on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development, and will be voting on this legislation next Tuesday, April 9th. This might be your final opportunity to act before it goes to a full Senate vote, so call their office and urge them to stand up for YOUR Constitutional Rights by voting NO on SB 7096.

Travis Hutson (850) 487-5007
Perry Thurston, Jr (850) 487-5033
Jeff Brandes (850) 487-5024
Tom Lee (850) 487-5020
Keith Perry (850) 487-5008
Wilton Simpson (850) 487-5010
Annette Taddeo (850) 487-5040
Victor Torres, Jr (850) 487-5015

This Bill will make the already burdensome process of having an initiative placed on the ballot nearly impossible. Of the states which allow for a citizen’s initiative, Florida already has the most difficult requirements to place an item on the ballot and have it pass once there.

Phone calls to offices are great, but there are other options to contact your representatives if they do not sit on the committee that will take this crucial vote on Tuesday.

CLICK HEREto sign the petition urging your Legislators to VOTE NO on this voice-stealing legislation.

CLICK HERE for a list of Legislators and their Twitter handles. Tweet your Senators and Representatives to let them know they need to oppose this anti-voter legislation with the hashtag #FLVoterVoice.

Tell the members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development NOT to eliminate YOUR Constitutional Rights and vote NO on SB 7096:

  • This bill would limit free speech by only allowing Florida citizens to collect signatures
  • Volunteers must register with the state to collect petitions, meaning they must register to exercise their first amendment rights
  • If a petition collector is ruled ineligible the signatures of the voters who signed the petitions will be ruled invalid without their knowledge
  • This bill could let the government place unfair and biased language on the ballot for initiatives they don’t support

Supporters of the proposed changes claim the bill addresses current issues with the citizen initiative process. These pretenses show their true motive is to eliminate the citizen initiative process, not protect our voting process:

  • Fraud is statistically nonexistent in the initiative process, and it
    is disingenuous to use it as reasoning to further erode our constitutional rights
  • The amount of amendments passed by the Legislature, CRC and TBRC outnumber citizen initiatives 3-1, meaning citizen initiatives do not overburden the process
  • Some of the past citizen initiatives have led to rights restoration, homestead exemptions, increased minimum wage and tax exemptions. These are not frivolous amendments and represent the wishes of the citizens who worked to place them on the ballot and those who voted to enact them.

This is an important bill that could have lasting ramifications on the future of our democratic process and constitutional rights.

Call the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development and tell them NOT to further erode your Constitutional Rights by voting NO on SB 7096.

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