May 2, 2011. Sneaky measure agreed to by legislators with “no explanation or discussion.”
In yet another example of legislative leaders using their budget document to adopt legislation they can’t pass on the floor, budget negotiators tonight have agreed to include a provision in the budget that paves the way for a ban on union dues for several state worker unions. The measure was offered by the House, and accepted by the Senate, with no explanation and no discussion.
The so-called “paycheck protection” bill has been on hold in the Senate all week as its sponsor, Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, failed to get enough votes to pass it. By last count, there were 24 votes against it in the 40-member Senate. But budget negotiators found a way to tuck a similar measure into the budget through their collective bargaining language and it was offered by the House, agreed to by the Senate, and there was no explanation or discussion.
Because the Legislature has the authority to resolve any impasse over wage concessions with unions, lawmakers want to use the governor’s recent impasse with several unions to allow him to force the ban on unions using payroll deduction to collect union dues. The governor could take the union’s ability to have dues check-off out of their contract, union members said, and they could lose that benefit.