Friday was International Workers' Day. May Day, as it's often referred to, is a day in which the working masses celebrate the hard-fought victories of the labor movement, while recognizing the constant struggle to hold that ground. It was no accident that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chose May 1 to sign a bill into law that will make it harder for public-sector workers to form or maintain union representation.
Collective bargaining is the heart of the labor movement. Unions and the threat of organized labor strikes are the only means by which the infinitely underleveraged working poor have been able to pool their numeric power and at least somewhat level the playing field between ownership and labor so that a minimally equitable society can exist. Things like "weekends," overtime pay, basic regulations involving worker safety, and compensation and other protections for workers injured on the job are all results of the labor movement.
The American middle class and what has long been thought of as the American Dream all rest atop a foundation built by collective bargaining. But while the most prosperous times our nation has ever known and the height of the labor movement coincided (no accident, to be sure), unionization has remained under constant threat since its inception and sits at an all-time low today.
We have long known that lower union density is the greatest indicator of economic disparity. From the 1940s through the 1960s, union density remained relatively stable, peaking at around 35%. By 1970, it had fallen to 29%. By the end of Ronald Reagan's first term, it had slid all the way down to 20%, and by the end of last year, it had slipped just under 10% (down 2/3 from its peak), as income inequality reached its highest levels in nearly a century.
Even today's paltry union density figures are largely propped up by public-sector unions. Employees in the public sector are more than five times as likely to be union members as private-sector employees. While the public sector is much smaller than the private sector, it accounts for about half of the approximately 14.7 million American workers who enjoy the benefits of union representation.
The bill DeSantis signed (SB 1296) continues a decades-long assault on public-sector unions in Florida, imposing further restrictions, making it more difficult for unions to organize, and making it easier for them to be decertified. Most notably, the new law requires more than 50% of all employees in a bargaining unit to participate in certification/recertification elections, rather than just a majority of those voting.
In 2023, SB 256 created mechanisms to trigger the decertification of unions that fail to meet participation/support thresholds. It also made it illegal for employees to pay their union dues through payroll deductions. While this led to a wave of decertifications, the new 50% overall threshold will make decertifications even more likely.
Of course, there exist the normal nakedly partisan exceptions for police and fire, because those employees tend to vote Republican and don't tend to stand in solidarity with other unions that aren't granted the same partisan carve-outs. DeSantis and the other supporters of the bill targeted the "partisan teachers unions" in their rhetoric, celebrating the legislation without mentioning that other state government employees, including public utility workers, municipal employees, and healthcare professionals, will likewise be subject to the new law.
The fervor around eliminating public sector unions is driven by the idea that their existence might remind private sector employees of the benefits of collective bargaining, as well as the logic that they can otherwise pit private sector employees against their public sector counterparts, who are often maligned as part of the so-called government waste problem. And at a time when private sector unionization is enjoying something of a Renaissance, capital does not wish to see labor gain any ground.
Union election petitions doubled under President Biden's National Labor Relations Board, with historic wins at notoriously anti-union companies such as Amazon and Starbucks. As promising as this has been, it has remained a location-by-location effort, with neither union having won a contract since unionizing.
Despite his campaign rhetoric, President Trump, who has famously expressed his deep disdain for unions, has made several efforts to roll back progress. Soon after beginning his second term, Trump fired NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic appointee.
It was the first time in 90 years that a president removed an NLRB member mid-term. The firing led the board to fall below its required three-member quorum. That, combined with deliberate understaffing at the agency, created an enormous backlog. The Trump NLRB then rolled back Biden-era pro-union policies, including narrowing the “joint employer” standard to further disempower labor.
For states like Florida, in which the governor and legislature are doubling down on this assault on organized labor, the results for rank-and-file members of the working class will continue to be disastrous. Florida remains among the top 10 states in income inequality, with the top 1% earning 40 times as much as the bottom 99%.
With home values continuing to price out the working class, a property insurance crisis no one seems interested in addressing, and energy inflation gobbling up so much of workers’ wages, we need legislation to reverse that trend, not make it worse.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch's new novel, Fish Kill, is currently available and can be found along with his previous books here. He can be reached at editor@thebradentontimes.com.
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Charles
"we need legislation to reverse that trend, not make it worse" — and the only way to get such legislation is to change the legislators. Vote to make that change after working to support and elect candidates who will act for the benefit of the voters.
Wednesday, May 6 Report this
conrope
Well put comrade
Wednesday, May 6 Report this
rayfusco68
During my management career it became very clear to me that unionization was not a threat to employers that provided fair and equitable wages and working conditions. The most common reason for employees seeking to leave a job is feeling that they are not valued. Instead of using a club to beat down our teachers we should be working together to create a workplace that is safe, properly compensated, and where the teachers feel valued, not threatened.
Wednesday, May 6 Report this
Lktinsanfran
It is simple to understand why DeSantis is trying to stop the teachers unions, they typically vote democrat. He'll do anything (corrupt) to maintain the domination of the republican party. From redistricting to smashing the unions. What in the hell is he so afraid of? That's an easy answer - losing the replican stronghold. How about a democracy where people vote fairly for the best candidate instead of party? It is out of control!
Wednesday, May 6 Report this
san.gander
It is quite simple... DeSantis opposes the working classeses at every level in every sector.
Those that work for a living and band together do the locgical thing, they support the party that understands their needs and best supports their positions private and public. Go Union! And history tells us they can be driven to extremes.
The souless capitalists themselves created the radicalized left and do not have the intelligence to know that or if they do, they don't care.
The rich and powerful have only the desire to humiliate, crush, and destroy those they have driven to that extreme. So far from a so-called Christian nation are we; so far from an honorable society in so many ways.
Wednesday, May 6 Report this
GreyMoss
This is a very thoughtful essay. But our ideals, our social conscience, even our social infrastructure have all deteriorated since the peak of unionism. I have argued for way over fifty years that we should be wary of electing businessmen to public office. But the opposite has happened. And we all suffer for it. It’s not that a businessman can’t also be fit for public office; but the required open mind seems too rare. The values of businessmen are not only different than those of effective public servants, they fall into polar opposite clusters. Consider greed versus generosity as the possible core of the problem. Until we elect people who can see the humanity and inherent value of each of us, the United States will continue to fall in those lists that rank national satisfaction, or “World’s best airports,” etc. The US is currently about 30th in most of those lists. I have traveled all over the world and I have never seen a single country that cares less about its own citizens (in concrete benefits). Unions can help, but oh, by the way, national legislators must first provide a legal framework that defines, makes possible, and defends unions.
Wednesday, May 6 Report this