Miami-Dade teachers union says it survives despite missing participation threshold

Miami-Dade’s teachers union says it will survive another year, even after falling just shy of a 50% recertification voter participation threshold among eligible employees set by a recent law.

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A spokesperson for United Teachers of Dade said Tuesday they were informed by officials with the Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) that the threshold did not apply to this election because the process began before July 1, when the law took effect.

Ballots were mailed to all eligible employees in Miami-Dade County Public Schools May 27; completed ballots were mailed to Tallahassee and counted on a live stream by commission staff on Tuesday.

The vast majority of employees in the bargaining unit voted in favor of the union, but only 49.5% participated. Per PERC’s count, about 96.7% of respondents supported the union — 10,986 employees voted in favor of the union and 370 voted against. Two ballots were challenged.

With 22,964 eligible employees, United Teachers of Dade would have needed 11,482 employees to respond to the election to get to the 50% threshold. They were 142 votes short.

The PERC official counting the ballots congratulated United Teachers of Dade, but the state agency has yet to return requests for comment on the results from the Herald.

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The new law, put into effect by the passage of Senate Bill 1296, was the latest effort from the Florida Legislature to place stringent restrictions on public sector employee unions, though most of the regulations exclude “public safety” employees like law enforcement officers, firefighters, correctional officers and paramedics.

Elections to recertify public sector unions like United Teachers of Dade are not new. In 2018, the legislature passed a law requiring them for unions who counted less than 50% of the bargaining unit as dues-paying members. Later, the Legislature raised that bar to 60% and banned unions from pulling dues directly from teachers’ paychecks.

The union’s main selling point in communications with teachers centered around their contract with Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Decertification of the union would lead to the dissolution of the contract, which for employees.

Anna Fusco, president of Broward Teachers Union, told the Herald that her organization has not heard from PERC on when their recertification election will be held.

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