WASHINGTON: Florida filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s (pix) administration, asserting unconstitutional retaliation tied to the state’s new public workers’ union law and safeguarding critical federal funding, Attorney-General Ashley Moody said in a statement, reported Xinhua.
“Florida passed laws to protect workers from being strong-armed by unions. Biden, intent on driving our country into the ground, continues to try to force states to implement his bad policies. 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,“ Moody said on Wednesday.
According to the statement, Senate Bill 256 (SB 256), sanctioned by the Florida Legislature earlier this year, introduced several policies, facilitating more precise and deliberate union membership decisions by public employees, including teachers, while also prohibiting unions from compelling direct paycheck withdrawals for dues.
Additionally, SB 256 instigated several changes to Florida’s collective bargaining mechanisms: necessitating a membership authorisation for union representation, eliminating the government’s role as a financial intermediary between unions and public employees, and altering the Public Employees Relations Commission’s approach to evaluating a union’s eligibility to represent a group of employees exclusively, the statement said.
The lawsuit largely hinges on the Biden administration’s condition that Florida retract the adjustments implemented through SB 256 or face the loss of substantial federal funding, posing a potential risk to financial resources, notably those assigned to transportation workers, the statement added. –Bernama