Senate Bill 1296<\/a> would make the threshold for public sector union certification and recertification more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\nInstead of requiring more than 50 percent support of all eligible voters in a union vote as in the original bill, the amendment requires 25 percent of eligible voters to vote and for the union to receive 60 percent of those who voted. Current law only requires majority support of those voting.<\/p>\n
Republican Senator Jonathan Martin is the bill\u2019s sponsor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this bill does it forces the union presidents, the union leadership, the people who want that vote, it forces them to go out and say \u2018guys, give me the vote, I know you haven\u2019t shown up in the past\u2019\u201d Sen. Martin said.<\/p>\n
But it would not apply to police, fire, and corrections officers\u2019 unions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martin responded to concerns from senators about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference between a teacher, what\u2019s the difference between a first responder? I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any question about what the differences are. Some put on bulletproof vests when they go to work, some don\u2019t.\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n
The bill has drawn worry from people who say it will destroy unions. Last week, around forty activists rallied against the bill in Ybor City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Tallahassee, retired Polk County firefighter Ellery Farmer, a Republican, was one of many who spoke against the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the hard work of my union and my wife\u2019s union, who is very well represented here today, I was able to retire with great benefits and a great pension. I partly retired in order to take care of my elderly father. And I believe that all workers in Florida deserve the benefits that I retired with,\u201d Farmer said.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Wiley has been a bus driver in Marion County for 3 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis bill threatens my ability to protect my pay, my benefits, my working conditions. It limits my voice on the job and takes away from the only process workers like me have to stand up for ourselves when decisions are made over our heads.\u201d Wiley said.<\/p>\n
The bill advanced 10 to 8 and is headed to the full Senate. The House version is also ready for a floor vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Protestors rally in Ybor \/ Chris Young, WMNF News, 2\/26\/2026 Listen: A state bill targeting public unions is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-176938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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