In a frantic attempt to preserve its monopoly over the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, attorneys for the union currently representing the district’s 24,000-plus teachers and support staff are relying on a strategy that has the potential to backfire and leave its members without workplace representation altogether.
An anti-union bill that passed last year requires most public-sector unions to increase the rate of members paying dues or be disbanded. Some unions, including police, firefighters and correctional officers, are exempt from the new law.
A WLRN investigation begins to reveal the scope of SB 256, a sweeping anti-union labor law passed in 2023. What is emerging is an outright crisis for teachers and other public sector workers. “The work conditions of hundreds of thousands of people are going to be up in the air,” said one advocate.