Just days after Gov. Ron Desantis signed Senate Bill 256 into law, the Florida Education Association filed a lawsuit against it, and now, local teachers’ unions are speaking out, saying this could be the final straw for some of Florida’s educators.

The law prohibits unions from collecting dues directly from members’ paychecks, and increases membership requirements from 50% to 60% in order to be eligible for re-certification.

At a press conference Tuesday, Desantis said the bill is about teacher empowerment, creating more take home pay through fewer paycheck deductions, and ensuring unions represent the majority.

“It’s also something that’s going to allow the state to look at how many people are joining and if you don’t have a sufficient number joining, then that should not be the bargaining unit if you don’t even represent the majority of people,” said Desantis.

While supporters of this bill say this is about giving teachers more control, the President of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Assocation says it does the exact opposite.

Nancy Velardi, president of the PCTA, says she’s braced herself for this day — when SB 256 became law.

“It is taking away teacher’s rights, it is taking away their freedoms simply because they have been vocal expressing disapproval of other bills signed in the past that limit the freedom of thought in our classroom,” said Velardi.

The Florida Education Association seems to agree.  It joined three affiliated unions in filing a federal lawsuit against the law saying it’s unconstitutional and violates educators’ rights to freedom of speech and association.  

Velardi says reaching the 60% threshold, combined with no payroll deductions, could lead to the end of some unions.  “There are going to be people who either forget to sign up to do the ach or can forget a check periodically, it’s something that is human, we all have that problem, and the combination of that with having to maintain an even higher threshold of membership it’s going to be difficult to maintain.”

And her biggest concern is if teacher’s unions can’t maintain memberships, qualified teachers will leave, and go somewhere with proper representation, where their voices are heard.

“This has happened in other states and unions were de-certified as a result of it, teachers were required to work around the clock, there were no contract hours at all, they were on call 24/7, they were not given any say in how any part of education is run, they simply lost their voice,” said Velardi.

Right now, the PCTA is sitting around 55%.  Velardi says they’ve been working to inform local teachers about the changes, and hope to reach the 60% threshold by July 1.