The Alachua County Education Association (ACEA) is at risk of having its certification revoked if it fails to meet several new state requirements by April 24.
Senate Bill 256, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, prohibits the deduction of dues from teachers' salaries. Throughout the school year, ACEA has been encouraging Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS) employees to register for electronic services and pay their dues.
ACEA President Carmen Ward said many employees are having trouble signing up for eDues because the technology is confusing. He said that before the new law, there were 2,300 members in the union, but that number has dropped to 1,900 this year because membership is determined by whether employees pay union dues.
The law exempts law enforcement, corrections and firefighter unions from payroll deduction limits, but Ward said he feels this unfairly treats educators.
“All public servants work in the public interest,” Ward said in a phone interview. “It’s very disturbing that the state of Florida is attacking educators…Florida also happens to be the largest union, and it also has a very large number of women.”
Ward said ACEA also recently found that the state separates teachers and educational support professionals into two separate categories, with each category required to meet a 60% admissions standard. On the teacher side, Ward said union membership is at 65%, but participation among education support professionals remains at 53.5%.
The deadline is April 24th, but if your employees want to pay their dues through eDues, you must set the deadline in your system in time for the next payment period on April 12th. Members can pay their dues by check until April 24th.
The new law also requires all members to sign a charter, so even if a union has enough members to pay dues, if a member has not signed a charter, the union will There is a possibility that the certification may be revoked. Last week, ACEA organized a “Save the Coalition” day to promote the authorization form.
During “Save the Union,” ACEA also asked members to complete an interest form in case they do not meet either the accreditation form or dues-paying member criteria.
The interest form is the first step in union reorganization and requires 30% of the bargaining unit to show interest. Although ACEA's interest rate is already over 40% and is still being tallied, Ward said he is optimistic there will be no need to restructure the union.
“We're going to beat this, we're going to survive,” Ward said. “Because, you know what? People who are passionate about their children's education have a higher purpose and deserve the best working conditions, the best salaries money can buy. And we… We believe we can win because we are united, vocal and passionate educators.”
