From Katie Rainwater, Cynthia Patterson, Leon Hardy, and Maureen McCormick of United Faculty of Florida.
On November 1, 2024, the Tampa Bay Creative Loafing reported some 400 services workers at University of South Florida (USF) would be transferred to the Compass Group, a giant corporate “family” of foodservice and facilities service companies. Under this transfer, USF workers would no longer be public sector employees with access to state benefits and state pensions nor have the ability to bargain for salary and working conditions.
The article, written by McKenna Schueler, noted that the workers at USF had previously been represented by a union.
Katie Rainwater from United Faculty of Florida (UFF) explains that the Florida State legislature passed SB 256 in 2023, which determined that public sector unions (except police and firefighters) must show via a membership audit each year that 60% of the bargaining unit are still dues paying members or they would be decertified. If they fell below this 60% bar, unions could gain certification for another year by election. Many unions fell below 60%, did not file for an election and thus were decertified.
The workers outsourced to Compass Group had had representation with ASFSCME for at least 20 years. As public employees, they had pensions and benefits. However, their membership dropped below 60%, they failed the audit and were decertified. Decertification meant that they no longer had legal status as a union and could not enforce their contracts.
Cynthia Patterson, also from UFF, notes that this would not be the first apparent “cost-savings” decision made by the administration. “The Tampa campus used to have folks who helped with traffic flow during peak hours to protect students, faculty and staff crossing busy streets between classes, but they no longer seem to be around. The campus also used to have parking enforcement employees but that service seems to have been reduced as well.” Across Florida, eight unions representing adjunct faculty have been decertified.
Leon Hardy from UFF maintains that these efforts by the government of Florida will spread to the whole staff and faculty of USF. He says that the evidence for this attack on Florida’s higher educational institutions has already begun under its attempt to re-write the General Educational courses, a pillar of quality education for Florida’s students.
Florida’s public higher educational institutions have suffered greatly under Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican controlled legislative branch. Public sector labor law, unlike private sector labor law, is a state-by-state issue so state level politics can directly impact workers and unions. Interference can range from making it hard for unions to maintain certification to telling faculty what they can or can’t teach in the classroom. Rainwater adds, “For Florida to have truly excellent public universities we need Floridians to share our vision of high quality public higher education free from political interference. As union members and as faculty members we have an important role to play in defending our universities so they can serve the public good.”
Other sources:
https://www.floridatrend.com/article/41482/education-in-florida-is-increasingly-reliant-on-local-funding
https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2024/10/25/usfs-new-dining-partnership-will-impact-400-employees/