Published 07 Apr, 2011
Op/ED article by James C. Little, TWU International President, from the Miami Herald
You need a scorecard to keep track of the dizzying number of anti-worker bills in the agendas of Gov. Rick Scott and statehouse Republicans. The goal is to weaken the voice of ordinary Florida families while strengthening the hand of Scott and his fellow millionaires. The anti-union agenda makes Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s program pale by comparison.
What’s the plan for the Sunshine State? Eliminate dues checkoff for union workers; shut workers out of politics; cancel tenure for teachers; cut workers’ pensions; and force public-sector unions out of existence unless a union can show more than 50 percent membership in a workplace, each and every year.
On that last point, a question for Gov Scott: You only won 48.8 percent of the vote in last year’s election, more than a full percentage point below the 50 percent threshold you and your partisan cronies are demanding from public-sector unions. Does that mean you shouldn’t be governor anymore?
We’ve heard a lot about restricting, and even eliminating, labor unions out of Tallahassee. But we haven’t heard a word about any corresponding new regulations on corporations.
In Rick Scott’s Florida, working people — including members of my union who work for Miami-Dade Transit — will not be permitted to contribute freely to their own unions, or to candidates and causes of their choosing. But businesses will still be able to deduct money from employees’ paychecks for corporate political action committees, which can then donate funds to candidates hand-picked by company executives.
This unbalanced approach is what you would expect when a disgraced former corporate executive becomes governor.
After winning the most closely contested governor’s race in more than 100 years, you’d think that Scott might reach across the aisle to seek bi-partisan solutions to Florida’s double-digit unemployment. Not a chance. Shortly after taking office, Scott turned down billions in federal aid for a high-speed rail project that would have put tens of thousands of Floridians to work.
Scott was in favor of federal largesse long before he was against it. The difference is that he was for taking federal tax dollars when he was CEO of Columbia/HCA, and the company skimmed money from Medicare. But he’s against taking legitimate federal dollars when the money would flow to Florida construction workers, railroad workers, real estate developers, homebuilders and others who would benefit from bringing the state’s infrastructure into the 21st century.
Rather than have a real debate about jobs and how to revive the Florida economy, Scott and GOP leaders, such as House Speaker-in-waiting Chris Dorworth, would rather use their legislative supermajority to ram through a package of half-baked bills designed to handcuff “Big Labor.”
Who exactly do they think needs handcuffing? Just 5.6 percent of Florida’s workers, public and private, are members of labor unions; only six states in the entire country have a lower proportion of unionized workers. And Florida is already a right-to-work (for less) state, where no worker can be required to join a union or to pay union dues if he or she chooses not to.
TWU members are proud to be part of the Florida labor movement, fighting every day for middle-class jobs and decent public services. When politicians backed by big money try to take away our rights, it’s time to ask: Whose side are you on? And who becomes stronger when labor unions become weaker?