Quotes

Policy Analysis of: S447.505 Part II Labor Organizations – Strikes Prohibited [Education]

Article 1 Section VI Florida State Constitution

“SECTION 6. Right to work.—The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non-membership in any labor union or labor organization. The right of employees, by and through a labor organization, to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Public employees shall not have the right to strike.” – Article I Section VI Florida State Constitution.

“447.505 Strikes prohibited.—No public employee or employee organization may participate in a strike against a public employer by instigating or supporting, in any manner, a strike. Any violation of this section shall subject the violator to the penalties provided in this part.” – 2020 Florida Statues

 

Consider the Following:

In the United States there are 28 states categorized as ‚Right – to work States‘. The phrase ‚Right to work‘ in and of itself is a distgusting‘ly deceptive phrase, developed, protected, and supported by several GOP members. ‚Right – To – Work‘ portrays the idea that it is a fundamentally ‚beneficial‘ by ‚giving people the right to work‘; however, this laws function is quite the contrary. ‚Right – to – work‘ laws actively work against the workers, their right to strike, which inevitably leads to a unjust system in their respective work place. The reduce workers voice, allow for exploitation, lower wages, and creates a system where the wealthy, corporations, or politicians benefit the most – rather than the people that elected them, worked for them, or advocated for them.

Provided by Article 1 Section 6 of the Florida State constitution amended following the state wide teachers strike & demonstration of 1968, a historic precedent, which sparked teachers strikes across the nation – States the following: ‚Right to work‘ –‚ The right of persons to work shall not be denied or abridged on account of membership or non – membership in any labor union or labor organization. The right of employees, by and through a labor organizations to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Public Employees shall not have the right to strike.‘ I wanted to place a emphasis on the boldened text ‚Public Employees‘ – These employees embark a broad range of workers, such as teachers and educators across the state. This law spans across 28 states respectfully. However, for the state of Florida, the law does not just end there – another provision was added on top of the states constitution, State Statute 447.505§2 [Strikes Prohibited] which provides the following. „No Public Employee or employee organization may participate in a strike against a public employer by instigating or supporting in any manner, a strike. Any violation of this section shall subject the violator to the penalties provided in this part‘. In the eyes of the states representatives, the states Govenor,  and the states department of education – these laws and legislation are a benefit. Which to them, entirely – yes – It is a benefit. The department of education can actively work to pay teachers lower wages, force them into conditions which may be unfavorable, provide them with little to no training, or requiring unnecessary and unproductive training, which only delays them from being able to teach – or creates a situation where teaching becomes inherently more difficult. Districts in Florida – have different ‚bars to meet‘ – per the States department of education, which then leads to some teachers being overworked, them being tied into unfair contracts, and if a teacher or employee so much as complains or any type of union organization / movement may lead to a loss of work to said employee – and if the administrative team, or district choose too – It could also result in a Second Degree misdemeanor charge, provided by State Statute 775.082-775.083.  However, right to work laws in the State of Florida do not simply apply to just educators – but to all employees. Any employee in the state of Florida, is able to be fired without reason. Some companies, such as Publix – gives benefits to management for how much money they can save by having less employees. Breeding the environment necessary for unnecessary worker exploitation to take place. Such as, running a entire store with five employees in comparison to 10 – for each dollar management saves on not using a employee – their bonus check increases.

Some may provide an argument that these laws are not inherently bad. They‘ll stipulate that the ‚Right to work‘, protects against Union fees, allowing for any worker to join a union, without having to pay a fee – which then leads to larger ‚Unions‘ per membership – which allows more workers to have a say in their respective unions. But such is done with several pieces of legislation – it has lopeholes and gaps that congress refuses to shut because it increases their power either in control or just increases their own respective wealth. This ‚Right – to – work‘ concept also provides very little job securities for public workers. This piece of legislation is comparible to a blindfolded game of Russian Roullete – where the workers and their needs are the participants – but the states congress and department of education are responsible for loading the guns chambers, except this legislation guarantees there is no chance the gun goes off and does not emit a bullet into the skull of the worker. These dirty rags of legislation suffocate Unions powers, and provide the voices of their members with a sedative. This legislation, and several other pieces of legislation are formatted similarly – which provides a way for employers to be able to fire workers, within ‚legal bounds‘ of which are vague enough in order to allow several unfair conditions to be imposed within a legal realm – and there is nothing educators or employees can do to work against it, and it only works for those on top, while leaving the workers at the bottom. An example of this exploitation and corruption of officials within the department of education,is through the usage and requiring of ‚standardized testing‘. This is not the sole reason why this type of testing exist; however, one of the reasons this testing exists, granted by ‚pearson‘ and other corporations, is through the lobbying of these corporations and other special interests groups to politicians within the state. This lobbying leads to politicians ‚supporting‘ specific pieces of legislation and assist in passing several provisions that benefit them and their special interests. This happens across the political arena, from voter supression laws, oil drilling permissions, and working ‚rights‘ – to name a few. For this example – ‚Pearson‘ in turn for supporting and mandating them as the official test administrator etc, or granting them licensure for being the main text books the curriculum is based upon, and test administration fees, give thousands if not millions of dollars to politicians – and sponsorships to help their re-election campaigns, especially if they are heading into a election year. Several educators – even district employees may recognize this happening, in front of their faces, yet are incentivized to not say anything about it. The money that districts are then required to put forth for these fees or ‚special curriculum‘ that is the result of nothing more than lobbying to turn a profit – should be going to more crucially important things. Such as, but is not limited too – increased and higher more libeable wages, developed technology available in all the districts school, a equitable distribution of wealth amongst schools and districts, is instead going towards unnecessary items that do not benefit teachers nor students in any way – it only provides numbers. Merely statistics, hence transforming students into nothing more than just statistics, and having educators being measured by their statistics, i.e. EOC‘s and Benchmarks, etc. All Reuired by the state. This also transforms education from a learning and ‚productive educational platform to ‚learn‘‘ into a profitable market. Where teachers teach students not to learn, but to memorize. This harms both the conditions of work for educators amongst other public workers, and harms the education of students, since educators cannot necessarily do much to stop it without risking their jobs and livelihoods. We‘ve failed the modern public education system – specifically in the south – by allowing it to become a profitable market. Education is not a Centre to make money – it’s a place to learn, and we stopped treating it as such.

By decreasing or eliminating Union dues it comes with positives and negatives, a positive being – more people may join Unions. But as a negative, what good is that – when it deprives Unions of any economic recources they may have, decreasing unions powers and economic leverage they may have had over state employers. The sole purpose of this policy and now constitutional amendment – is simply to prevent strikes from happening ever again. During the industrial revolution we saw as Robber Barrons exploited and abused the work of their employees – we also saw Unions organize, strike, and demand better conditions, better pay, and ultimately established some of the work features we see in our modern era. Exploitation of any and all workers who contribute and are crucial to our society, is not justifiable, and cannot be tolerated. We can sit here, analyze and critique these policies and amendments that have already been passed. We can act like this was a past issue – and when you Analyze these policies you might think to yourself ‚why would this happen‘ – but even now – within the last couple of years – the Florida government is only introducing more bills to reinforce this suppressive amendment with Senate bill [SB 1014] – accompanied by House bill [HB 835], of which have been postponed several times, due to them not passing the final joint committees prior to taking it to the floor for deliberation and vote, but the fact that there is a risk of these laws passing is horrific. If those bills where to pass, SB 1014 [senate bill] would take away the ability for bargaining away from state workers, university and college employees, amongst other in the public sector. If this bill where to pass, any workers union below a 50% membership of their bargaining point would need to be disbanded, completely destroying any representations workers would have had with a Union.

Any reasonable citizen can beyond a reasonable doubt understand the detrimental effects of right to work laws – yet our elected officials and state governments, across 28 states respectfully – back, and support these laws. These laws passed by these elected officials harm their constituents, yet they turn a blind eye, these aren’t congressmen or congresswomen, these aren’t politicians that work for the people, they work for their own interest. This law is a blatant loophole and essentially a infringement on fundamental rights guaranteed by the US Constitution which they are sworn to protect. Specifically the First Amendment, guaranteed by the US Bill of rights – Amendment 1: Freedom of Religion, Speech, and press. Which states „Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.“ Once we allow specific fundamental ideals fall – the US government at the state and federal loses its credibility, or basic function as a government for the people.

„Enough is Enough“