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When did we become the enemy?

While the Florida Legislature has been woefully unproductive this session, unable to produce any meaningful legislation to help Floridians in this difficult economy or even produce a budget on time, they did manage to find the time to attack workers and public sector unions again. As both the Senate and House have now passed SB 1296, we are left to wonder, “When did when did we become the enemy? And why?”

Of course, it is no secret what has been occurring in both Higher Education and public schools here in Florida. Yet while the last 30 years of single party control in Tallahassee has presided over a slow and deliberate erosion of our K-20 public education system, in the past 5 years or so we’ve been witness to an accelerated and hostile takeover of many of our institutions of higher learning, the hollowing out of the schools in our communities, and the demonization of educators and the values for which we stand.

As we await analysis of the final bill and what it will mean in practical terms for Florida’s unions and specifically for FUSA and HC Faculty, we want to thank all of those who took the time to email or call (or both) legislators to voice opposition to this attack and to speak up for public sector workers in Florida. This opposition forced amendments that weakened the worst elements of the bill. Indeed, while this is a setback, it could have been much worse. FEA points out “one of the substantive changes to the bill is related voting thresholds in union recertification elections. The chart below shows the original impact and the current impact with the amended language.

“SB_1296_chart”

A second substantive change clarifies that release time for union members is permissible if agreed to in the collective bargaining agreement and if the union fully reimburses the public employer for compensation and benefits.

If you recall, SB 256 (2023) also represented a direct attack on educator unions. But through hard work and organizing we overcame every obstacle that was put in our place. In fact, there are more local unions affiliated with FEA today. And this highlights what we’ve known to be true all along. Our strength is in our unity. And if we stand together, they will not break us. It will require a redoubling of our efforts to grow FUSA membership even stronger. This is the only way to safeguard our contract and the protections and benefits it provides us.

In closing, we should recognize those legislators that did stand with the workers of Florida in opposition. Members from both parties in both chambers spoke passionately on behave of educators and to public good we provide.

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Urgent action needed again!

As many of you know, the Florida legislature, through bills in both the Senate (SB 1296) and House (HB 995) are trying to bust public sector unions like FUSA (though exempting first responder unions) and diminish your rights under the Constitution (freedom to associate) and the Florida Constitution (the right to collectively bargain). Over 200 union members, including FUSA, joined in Tallahassee to try and stop SB 1296 while still in committee. Despite vocal testimony of approximately 100 members, another 100+ waiving in opposition to the bill, and peeling two Republicans over to vote NO while two others strategically stayed home, the bill passed 10- 8.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends!

FEA and UFF have sent out messages this morning alerting everyone that the SB 1296 will be heard on the floor tomorrow (Thursday) We need everyone responding and letting both your own senator and other key senators they need to support Florida’s workers and to Oppose SB 1296.

Here are some tools to take action on SB 1296

myfusa take action

Urgent action needed on legislation

To all faculty who value their contract and what it provides for you and your families–things like a fair and predictable salary, safe and secure working conditions, due process and grievance protections, academic freedom and benefits of tenure–we have an urgent ask for all of you (and it may not be the last this legislative session).

The Legislature keeps moving the goal posts in an effort to undermine public sector unions, the vast bulk of which are educator unions such as FUSA (while exempting first responder unions like police, fire, and correctional officers!). We need to make a stand and tell them we will not be silent as they try to diminish our right to have a voice in our employment conditions and compensation! This is a right enshrined in the Florida Constitution.

What you can do

SB 1296 Public Employees Relations Commission will be heard in its final legislative committee next week and can then head to a vote on the Senate floor. We need your help to stop this bill in the committee. This bill will, if passed, require more than 50% of the bargaining unit to vote in a certification election for those chapters under 60% density. It will stop all course releases for union work. It will also give a 12 month window on Showing of Interest Cards. This is a fast track to decertification. We need you to step up and do the following:

Note: If you are a registered Republican, your participation will be particularly helpful.

FEA has noted some additional reasons this bill is bad for workers:

  • SB 1296 will make it harder for workers to support their families, and will hurt our communities. During a time when Floridians are struggling with an affordability crisis that is crushing family budgets and dismantling our ability to support our families, we need support, not policies that make it harder for us to live.
  • SB 1296 will make it harder for you to pay your bills and make it harder for you to fight for and keep your healthcare
  • SB 1296 will take away your voice at work and limit your personal freedoms, all while adding more bureaucracy to your workplace. 

Tell your lawmaker TODAY to support workers in Florida, not make it harder to for us to support our families!

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Say NO to “Viewpoint Diversity” survey – 2026 edition

We all get so much email. A ton. Like waves crashing on the shore, the email just keeps rolling in. But isn’t it such a great feeling when you know you can delete an email and forget it ever existed? Well, rest assured you can delete the email titled “Intellectual Freedom and Viewpoint Diversity Survey” sent by the College (as mandated by the state), and consign it to the digital dustbin forever. Please read the following guidance from UFF: 

The survey is not a valid tool, it has never been. It is a push poll, experts in the past have described it as such. Our participation in it, no matter how genuine your intent, will be used against us by state officials and lawmakers alike. We have learned from previous versions of the survey that participation across the board has been low. We must continue in this tradition and do our best to keep the results and participation low.

The United Faculty of Florida encourages all higher education faculty, staff, and students to ignore the voluntary “Viewpoint Discrimination” survey for the following reasons:

  1. Florida’s government has no right to know the thoughts, feelings, or political or religious beliefs of anyone, including the higher education community. Privacy is the bedrock of democracy and a safeguard against autocratic control.
  2. Ignoring this survey is an act that protects individuals of all political persuasions, now and into the future. This survey would not pass ‘validity tests’ in any institutional review process, as there is no way to ensure that responses will reflect the demographics of the institution. It is not worthy of time away from our teaching and research.
  3. The specificity of the survey’s demographic questions allows for targeting of faculty, particularly minority faculty, and can be used to attack tenure.
  4. Many of the survey’s questions are leading in nature and imply that there is a problem of viewpoint fairness on our campuses already–this is a conclusion searching for evidence, rather than the other way around.
  5. Many of the survey’s questions ask respondents to report on what they believe their colleagues and students think and how they are behaving on campus. Surveillance has no place in Florida’s higher education system.
  6. The survey will cause a chilling effect on freedom of speech and freedom of association on campus because faculty, staff, and students will be wondering whether their words and deeds will be reported to those in power.
  7. Governor DeSantis and other legislators have threatened to defund or otherwise punish campuses whose responses do not match the appropriate ideology. This is not a standard of leadership or behavior that any member of Florida’s higher education community should support.

For these reasons and more, UFF discourages participation in the survey, and we encourage you and all members of the Florida higher education system to join our fight to protect the freedoms of the faculty, staff, and students who make our campuses such wonderful places to live, learn, and grow.

If you have any questions feel free to contact us or reach out to your campus FUSA council reps.

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Settle in for updates on Sociology, Syllabi, and the Session

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).

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Baseball, bills, and brews with buddies

In the latest “Rays on campus” news, the Governor visited in person to announce his support for the development deal that stands to reshape the HC campus, the surrounding neighborhood, and perhaps even the city. According WFLA, “DeSantis said that while local officials are responsible for the legwork of securing approval and funding for the new stadium, the state government will help where it can. The state plans to convey the land to Hillsborough College, which will then work out a deal with the team.”

Bad bills

FEA and UFF are integral to lobbying for members in Tallahassee and informing members of the myriad education developments happening throughout the year but especially during the legislative session. The UFF Government relations committee (which has FUSA representation) works to provide guidance on new bills to support our members and help educate and organize around bills that are unfriendly to higher education, faculty, and our collective union voice. The mid-point of the Legislative session is next week (2/9-2/13) and things will begin to heat up fast. Here are some of the bills we are tracking:

  • HB 995 / SB 1296 — are more union busting bills aimed at educators. While SB 995 seems to have stalled, it is too early to get complacent. This is good news but it doesn’t yet mean the bill is dead.
  • HB 757 – would allow guns on college and university campuses similar to the “guardian program” in K-12

More ways to take action

Guidance

Recently, a number of guidance documents and links have been sent to members’ emails, in particular related to immigration, academic freedom, syllabi requirements, and more. If you aren’t receiving these updates from FEA and/or UFF (UFF President Cassanello’s messages are particularly informative and impactful), let us know using the Contact Us form. Be sure to use the personal email address at which you’d like to receive the updates.

The Faculty Brew

The first of three planned meet-ups for Spring term is happening this Friday, 2/6. The brainchild of fellow faculty member and FUSA member, Eric Fiske, it is meant to be an opportunity to connect outside of work to discuss faculty matters (or other matters). So let’s try to pack the place and enjoy some food, drinks, and conversations with colleagues.

Details for the first Faculty Brew:

Here is a flyer with details about all planned faculty socials and we’ll be sure to update you before the next one.

myfusa bargaining, contract, take action

Holiday tidings (and some work things)

We have some quick updates for faculty as we wrap up the semester and leave for the holiday break.

The MOU

First, we appreciate all who took the time during finals week mail to vote on and ratify a one-time extension of the tenure timeline for 2025-2026. It required a quick turnaround during one of the busiest weeks of the semester. The MOU passed 99-1. You can read the it here.

The reopener

FUSA and the Administration met on December 5, 2025 for the first bargaining session for the 2025-2026 contract reopener, which is limited to Article 14 (Economics) and discussions of possible options for long term disability coverage. Here is a summary of the negotiations:

  1. FUSA presented Article 14 proposing:
    1. a 7% + $1000 increase to the salary scale for 2026-2027, a $1000 increase to the salary scale for 2027-2028, along with a step increase for each year, and 
    2. an increase in overload to $82/load point for 2026-2027, and $84 /load point for 2027-2028.
  1. Administration gave a detailed presentation on Long Term Disability options, comparing five different company offerings and rationale for choosing The Guardian as the best potential option for employees.  It was agreed the next step would be for Administration to secure a contract with that company, tentatively by January.
  1. The next bargaining session will be at an appropriate date in the spring while the legislature is in session and budgets are being determined.  Dr. Atwater has stated that salary increases are once again a priority.

The session

The legislative session is set to start Jan 13 and run through Mar 13. There is even talk of a special session after the regular session. So it is already shaping up to be an eventful and consequential start to the new year. FUSA has Senators that work with UFF and FEA to help shape legislation public policy and legislation. If you have any questions about the process in Tallahasse or the government relations work UFF and FEA does, fee free to contact us with any questions or feedback. You can follow the session with some handy tools:

If you’ve followed education news in Florida in recent years you know the stakes we are facing. It will require engagement from members like you to shine a light on the legislative process in Tallahassee. The more they hear from our members the less they can ignore our collective voice. Stay tuned for updates both here and in your inbox from UFF & FEA.

We hope you have a wonderful and restful holiday break and look forward to seeing you on Jan 8 at Inservice.

myfusa take action

FUSA updates! (Talking Blues edition)

In the grand folk tradition of Talking Blues, the following post will address some recent issues affecting Higher Ed and workers in general. We aim to inform and, when possible, provide some options for organizing around and responding to these issues.

Woody Guthrie, could we use you now!

Talkin’ syllabi postin’ requirement blues

FUSA has learned through monitoring efforts by FEA public policy advocates and the UFF government relations committee that the State board of Education is amending the rule governing the FL Statute, 1004.085 – Textbook and instructional materials affordability and transparency, which contains the mandatory syllabi posting requirement.

One curious thing about laws not covered by Schoolhouse Rock is the rulemaking process. This is the process of laying out how the law (or statute) is implemented and interpreted. Where the law has the broad strokes, the rule includes the fine detail. Rulemaking authority is typically granted to the agency executing the law. Agencies can also amend the rules. In this case the State Board of Education (SBOE) is seeking to amend the previous rule imposing syllabus requirements in some significant and concerning ways.

While we’ve gotten used to posting our syllabi in advance and the process thus far has been fairly simple and straightforward, the SBOE seeks to change that. The new rule seeks to add the following onerous and unrealistic syllabus posting requirements:

  • Required and recommended textbooks and reading materials
  • student assignments including a title, brief description of the assignment, and any required readings

Find the full text of the of the proposed rule on the State’s page for FCS Textbook Affordability: Rule 6A-14.092, Florida Administrative Code. The State needs to hear from faculty about this ill-advised rule change and why it is simply not a realistic expectation. Leave your public comment on the State Board Rules Under Review page before the next State Board meeting on November 13, 2025. (look for the row: 6A-14.092 – Textbook and Course Material Affordability and Transparency)

Talkin’ get your politics outta my academic freedom blues

The attacks keep coming from both the federal and state levels. We need to stand up united and push back! Here are some resources on Academic Freedom from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors as well as actions you can take to help protect it.

Talkin’ government shutdown sent me to the food kitchen blues

With the longest government shutdown in our history still affecting furloughed (or fired) federal workers and citizens in need of government services, and with no clear signs of resolution in sight, we have some options for making your voice heard. Please consider taking action with one or more of the options below:

myfusa bargaining

Welcome Back! New year, new contract

Where did it go? The promise of summer has let us all down again, as it does every year. At the start of Spring term we see it there in the distance shimmering like a mirage. At commencement Summer is laid out before us like a long, open road. And then, suddenly, we are right back at Fall Inservice wondering, “How the heck did that happen?”

Summer is over meme

To help cushion the blow, FUSA has some great news. After starting bargaining in Fall 2024–before the storms–we finally came to an agreement on a new three-year contract for 2025-2028. You can review the bargaining summary before we vote on ratifying the contract Thursday 8/14 at Fall Inservice. We look forward to seeing you at the FUSA table!

Here are some highlights in the new contract:

  • a 3% increase to the salary schedule
  • an additional step increase for all eligible faculty
  • an increase in overload pay from $76 to $78 per load point
  • a new stipend for discipline chairs, an increase to the stipend for Tier 2 department chairs, and a new Tier 2 Program Manager position
  • full-time temporary faculty (FTT) will now be placed on the salary schedule based on prior experience and are eligible for annual pay increases.  In addition, the length of a FTT assignment can be up to 3 years, and all 3 years may be used towards tenure.
  • the return of terminal pay for unused sick days

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FUSA makes a statement

While there was little suspense, FUSA easily bounded the hurdle of union recertification with a clear signal that legislative union busting attempts will not win the day! Voting closed April 1, 2025, and the ballots were tallied and reported by PERC, the Public Employees Relation Commission.

As FUSA President Sherry Sippel noted, “A resounding 99.2% of voting faculty were in favor of continuing to be represented by FUSA as their collective bargaining agent! In addition, almost 70% of the faculty voted!  That sends a strong message to the legislature that their next union-busting tactic of requiring more than half the bargaining unit to vote will surely fail here at HCC.”   

View the official Tally of Ballots | Screenshot of the ballot count

UFF President Teresa Hodge added, “Please join me in congratulating the Faculty United Service Association of Hillsborough Community College on their PERC election win today…Our bargaining unit members are continuing to make it clear that they want to keep their collective bargaining rights and their union by voting ‘YES for UFF!’  UFF now has nine (9) chapters that have won their PERC elections.  So, let’s celebrate each PERC win as we continue to thrive against all the odds!”

On behalf of the FUSA Council, our sincere thanks to everyone for casting their vote! United we are stronger!!

Bargaining – round 3

Our third of four scheduled bargaining sessions will take place April 4 at 9am – 1pm in YLRC 305 (Ybor Campus). As agreed to by both Admin and FUSA, this is the last session at which article proposals can be presented. Here is a Bargaining Summary of the proposals presented thus far and their status after the first two sessions.

All faculty are encouraged to attend bargaining sessions and stay involved! When we pack the room with faculty it really makes a statement–much like our PERC victory–that your contract is important and so is your union.

Legislative updates and action

Advocacy in Tallahassee by faculty and educators, with the help of UFF, FEA, and Working Families Lobby Corps, is making an impact. So is FEA’s weekly power hour Zoom meetings and legislative actions which have resulted in thousands of emails and phone calls each week to legislators on proposed legislation.

For instance, the perennial “guns on campus” zombie bill is dead once again! And this year’s union busting bills are having a hard go of it, seeming to be stalled in both chambers. Meanwhile, the Higher Ed “Presidential searches in the sunshine” bill is getting closer to becoming reality and would fix a terribly politicizing change made to a once open process.

Keep up the pressure with these actions (select “United Faculty of Florida” as your local union):

More ways to get involved: