TALLAHASSEE – A Florida House bill and its Senate companion will force teacher unions to maintain at least half of eligible school district employees in their tanks or face revocation of their union certification.

The bills would amend language regarding the certification of bargaining agents – otherwise known as unions – and make it easier for the state to dissolve teachers unions that do not meet new standards of minimum registration and membership reporting, if passed.

Because Florida is a right-to-work state, meaning teachers do not necessarily have to join a teachers union to receive the benefits for which the teachers union fight, state and local teaching advocates say placing minimums on registration not only attempts to solve a problem that doesn’t exist in Florida, but is part of a perpetual assault on public education in the state.

“There’s absolutely no doubt it’s aimed at us, and it’s aimed at taking away teachers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining,” said Renna Lee Paiva, president of the Clay County Education Association teachers union. “Again, teachers are insulted. Again, it’s another impromptu attack on the teaching profession.”

The bill specifically omits firefighters, police officers and other public service bargaining units from its language.

“If you’ve got a situation where a lawmaker believes that unions have too much power and they must be curbed…why are you exempting unions that represent these specific professions?” said Mark Pudlow, spokesperson for the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher advocacy organization. “If it’s a problem, why is it only a problem for teachers, state workers and other public unions and not a problem for correctional officers, firefighters and police officers?”

Legislators amended the right to collectively bargain into the Florida Constitution after a 1968 walk out in which thousands of teachers across the state left their classrooms to protest poor pay and poor working conditions.

Thereafter, it became illegal to go on strike as a Florida teacher. The change instead allowed teachers to renegotiate their contracts with their respective school boards annually.

If the new requirements were to remain unmet after the bill’s effective date, July 1, then unions must recertify with the state’s governing agency, the Public Employees Relations Commission. The process is time-consuming and costly. A union must petition the commission for recertification as the exclusive representative of all employees in their district within one month after the organization applies for registration renewal, or the state revokes the union’s certification.

The threat of the bill “has been a god send” for membership numbers in Clay County, according to Paiva. “The teachers aren’t going to allow that to happen,” she said. “They’re excited about their union and I have every confidence in the world that we’ll be fine.”

Less than a week after Republican Rep. Scott Plakon (R-29) of Longwood, Fla. introduced the bill on Feb. 22, applications to the CCEA surged three percentage points. The boost has pushed the union passed the representation threshold by about one percent.

PERC estimates that there are well over 600,000 public employees in bargaining units throughout the State of Florida. If Clay County serves as any precursor to the rest of the state, then that number stands to rise substantially as teachers flock to support their respective union organization.

There’s also a chance the bill could face opposition in court from the FEA depending on the final language of the bill, according to Pudlow. The bill is currently sitting in committee, with no clear ending point in sight now.

It’s also unclear whether legislators will see it in the same light as teachers do – yet another attack on teachers.

“We agreed to not go on strike for the right to collective bargain, and now the legislators are trying to take away our right to collective bargain,” Paiva said. “We intend to fight back. We are dedicated teachers and we’re not going to allow legislators to attack to destroy our profession.”