Your UFF-HC Senators attended the United Faculty of Florida Spring Senate this past weekend. These Senate meetings are important for doing the business of the statewide chapter for higher education. In-depth updates will be provided at the upcoming FUSA meeting (2/28), but we can share some important updates here on the Sociology Curriculum issue as well as guidance for Syllabus posting.
There will be a webinar held Wed 2/18 at 6pm titled, Who Decides What to Teach: Sociology and the politics of the curriculum. We strongly urge all faculty to attend this because while it is particularly focused on the current Sociology curriculum issue in the state, union leadership has it on good authority that it won’t stop with Sociology. In fact, History and Psychology appear to the next disciplines to be targeted. Don’t miss this chance to hear what is at stake and how we can organize and fight back! Download the Flyer!
Also shared with senators was an in-depth guidance document on how to navigate the complex syllabi posting requirements at play in the state. Because the universities (SUS) are governed by the Board of Governors while the colleges (FCS) are by the State Board of Education there are some key differences for each. This document breaks down the requirements for each, what protections remain, what is NOT required, and more. Download the UFF Member Guidance!
Union-busting, busted?
If you haven’t heard the news from FEA or UFF, the union-busting bill (SB 1296) that was moving last week may have run into some headwinds. While it did pass the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, it did so despite a barrage of pushback from union members across the state. Further, the Florida Senate’s own legal analysis identified six (!) violations of the Florida Constitution in the bill as currently written. Yet it still passed on party line votes with all six Republicans voting to pass it out of committee and all three Democrats voting NO.
Normally, this would be bad, terrible, no good news. However, according to FEA legislative analysts, the bill is not on the agenda for this week. And due to the arcane rules of the legislature and the amount of time left in the session, this doesn’t bode well for the bill’s longevity. That said, while we are cautiously optimistic, we aren’t going to let our guard down. If we need to step into action again we will make the call to members to join together and fight back the blatant attacks of worker’s rights to a collective voice.
If you are interested in the legal analysis, the following is from the FEA Frontline Report:
“SB 1296 is the Senate companion to HB 995. These bills are not only anti-freedom and anti-worker in nature, they are also blatantly unconstitutional. That’s not just our opinion, that’s the view of the independent staff in the Florida Senate tasked with writing an analysis of the bill. Pages 20-23 of the analysis outline the many ways in which the bill is unconstitutional.
Among the unconstitutional provisions of the bill are that it
- restricts free speech by constraining the activities unions can engage in,
- abridges the right to collectively bargain,
- violates the equal protection clause by creating two-tiers of public sector unions (public safety unions and then everyone else), and
- contains multiple subjects in violation of Article III, Section 6 of Florida’s Constitution that requires every law to “embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith.”
We also encourage you to watch the hearing to see just how events transpired. These are not serious people! Yet their actions can have serious consequences. View the hearing on the Florida Channel (advance to 34:37 of the video).
Faculty United Service Association 