Educator Townhall Thursday

TIGER PRIDE UPDATE
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24, 2021

Good afternoon TIGER Pride members,

First, I want to apologize for the confusion last night with our TIGER Pride meeting. Two links were sent out for the Rep Council meeting and none for the TIGER Pride meeting. This was an IT error on our part and the appropriate adjustments have been made so as not to happen again.

Since we did not meet last night, I am asking that all TIGER Pride members attend the town hall that is being sponsored by FEA tomorrow night, Thursday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m.

Zoom registration info can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/featownhall

Discussion will center around the opportunities and challenges we continue to face, including our efforts to bring equitable pay increases to all our members, shore up our retirement (FRS) and bring back job security for our teachers. We will also talk about our fight against proposed legislation that undermines your individual rights and the work you do each day on behalf of Florida’s children, and how you can help stop it. This will be streamed on Facebook Live and saved on the FEA Facebook page, in case you can't join us on Thursday.

As for the Bills we were discussing last night in Rep Council, here is the info:

SB 1014 (House companion - HB 835)
Requires:

• All Instructional and Support Staff unions to be above 50% density on Dec. 31 of each year.
• All members to rejoin their union on August 1, 2021 and re-join every 2 years.
• All members sign a notice with employer saying they understand the right to join a union or not.
• All districts must verify members request to join a union.
• PERC investigate/verify union membership density.
• DOE to create guidelines for district verification of membership.
• Member cards to have a 14 PT font disclaimer about Florida being a right to work state.

• Excludes all public sector unions except educators.
• Not yet on a committee agenda

SB 78 (House companion – HB 947)
Requires:

• Employer to confirm authorization for dues deduction with employee.
• Employees to join every time a new contract is signed.

• Now in Rules committee awaiting hearing/vote.
• Puts employer between union and employee.

SB 84 (No House companion)
Requires:

• All new employees after June 30, 2022, would be place into the investment plan for retirement.

• Currently in Appropriations committee

• The FRS is NOT broken. It is one of the best pension programs anywhere.
• If people are arbitrarily omitted from the program, it will eventually run “dry” of funding, thereby effectively“ penalizing” employees who have paid into the program for a lifetime and are now expecting a modest return.
• This is a punitive “fix” - unwanted and unnecessary and would have devastating results for those currently in the program upon their retirement.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, contact your local Senator and Representative as well as the appropriate committee members and voice your displeasure of these bills.