Florida is suing multiple Biden administration officials, alleging they are threatening to withhold hundreds of millions in federal transportation dollars unless the state waives provisions of a new Florida law restricting collective bargaining rights.
But a Florida AFL-CIO official said it’s unclear why state Attorney General Ashley Moody is filing the lawsuit, contending that the issues raised in the ligation filed in the Southern District of Florida could be sorted out without such litigation.
Moody’s lawsuit says the federal government wants to take away Florida’s autonomy to regulate how the collective bargaining process should work in the state. The Biden administration is now working to undermine that authority and this year’s passage of Senate Bill 256, which bars union dues from being automatically deducted from public employees’ payroll checks and raises the eligibility requirements for a union to serve as the bargaining agent for a group of public employees.
“Florida passed laws to protect workers from being strong-armed by unions,” Moody said in a prepared statement. “... As long as I am Florida's attorney general, Washington will never decide how we run our state. We’re pushing back against this overreach to protect our state’s autonomy and Florida workers.”
The Biden administration is trying to withhold federal transportation project funds from the state by relying on an unconstitutional interpretation of the Federal Transit Act, according to the lawsuit that was filed Oct. 4.
“The Biden administration reads the phrase ‘continuation of collective bargaining rights’ (in federal law) to mean that Florida cannot enact reasonable regulations governing the collective bargaining process, such as those the Legislature enacted earlier this year in Senate Bill 256,” the lawsuit says.
Buch Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy for the Florida AFL-CIO, said there are provisions included in the new law that allow the state Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) to waive those provisions that conflict with federal law relating to transportation funding.
““It's important to understand that what the attorney general is looking at is a federal law that has been in place for decades," Templin told the Florida Record. “... “It's not new, and it has nothing to do with the Biden administration. … The waivers that seem to be the source of her consternation were put in the law signed by the governor."
PERC can waive the provision of the law barring dues deductions for public-employee paychecks, as well as certain union certification issues, if it has been notified by the federal Department of Labor that protective agreements covering mass transit employees in the state conflict with federal labor protections, SB 256 states.
“I had been under the impression that this issue had been resolved,” Templin said. “... It could just be a way to get a headline and that you're attacking an administration you don't agree with.”
PERC has the authority to waive certain provisions of the state law when they prevent potential federal funding of transit projects around the state, he said.
“We were not aware that there were any major hang-ups centered around the waivers,” Templin said.
Defendants in the attorney general’s lawsuit include Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su and the Federal Transit Administration.