Opinion: Attacking union politics

Hard hitting may be part of the game in labor-management negotiations, but someone ought to throw a yellow flag on Gov. Jeb Bush for unnecessary roughness against Florida's public employee unions.

His current contract proposals would ban any political use of dues money collected through payroll deductions. While that is obviously aimed at the unions' campaign contributions, which favor the Democrats, it conceivably could cripple their lobbying also.

The demand is transparently vengeful and deeply unfair. Long experience has taught Florida's public employees that they can't count on the executive branch to plead their case with their ultimate employer, the Legislature. They have to do it themselves. Like it or not, that means lobbying and campaign contributions. If this is the governor's idea of campaign finance "reform" -- a subject on which his silence has spoken volumes -- it is conspicuously narrow.

A more even-handed proposal would also forbid the state's contractors, such as Blue Cross-Blue Shield, from making political contributions financed directly or indirectly by payroll deductions or other public funds. The Blues, which most state workers support through their health insurance deductions, contributed about $350,000 to last year's campaigns. The Republican Party, as it happens, got the lion's share of that, some $290,000.

To further tighten the screws in contract talks with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the administration is also demanding that workers give up their right to appeal disciplinary actions short of dismissal, that they agree to allow evaluations to be written by someone other than an employee's immediate supervisor, and that poor evaluations -- on which an eventual dismissal might be based -- should be unappealable also.

These would be nonstarters even if the administration were offering decent salary concessions, which it is not. The likely outcome is a nasty impasse in which the state imposes the new rules unilaterally and the employees go to court. This is not wise stewardship.

Administration negotiators pointed to a 1999 Florida Elections Commission decision that stopped the Marion County teachers' union from using a dues checkoff to finance its political action committee. The checkoff forms were distributed in public buildings (schools) where state law forbids political solicitations. Normal dues, however, are a different matter; they are not necessarily used for politics, and when they are, AFSCME's constitution entitles members to object and receive pro rata refunds.

"Paycheck protection," as Republicans euphemize their attack on union politics, strikes at workers' constitutional rights. It is inconsistent with good-faith negotiations and should not be part of the current contract talks.

Back to Opinion

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

From the Times
Opinion page