Juggernauts Advance

Two things just happened in Tallahassee.

The Florida State University System Board of Governors has just approved the long-anticipated regulation initiating post tenure review of all tenured faculty every five years.
The Florida Senate has just passed the bill decertifying unions that have less than 60% of the employees that they represent as dues-paying members. Every union with less "density" will have be be recertified (with a university-wide referendum) annually in order to bargain and enforce a contract. It also bars paying union dues by paycheck deduction (see the announcement below). It still has to pass the House and be signed by the governor.

The next regular Biweekly will go into the implications - and what the unions will have to do about it.

Time to Fish or Cut Bait...

And if you aren't a member, please join today. We are stronger when we stand together.

Dues Payments Changing

New Law Will Bar Union Dues Payment by Paycheck Deduction

The Florida Senate has passed a bill, Senate Bill 256 and the Legislature is working on House Bill 1445, which will bar payment of public employee union dues by dues deduction (except for unions that legislators like - and they don't like us).

Although we are fighting this bill, it is a priority of the Governor's office, and we have to be realistic. So the union is switching to a direct payment system. (One positive consequence of this change is that the USF Administration will no longer have access to the union's membership list.) Announcements on the transition will be forthcoming shortly.

New College

The New College Chapter of the UFF will host an Academic Freedom in the Sunshine event on Saturday, 1 April 2023, from 12:30 pm to 3 pm at the Sudakoff Conference Center, 5845 General Doughere Pl. in Sarasota. The presentation will be opened by UFF (statewide) President Andrew Gothard and features keynote speaker Jeremy C. Young of Pen America, and includes a panel discussion. Lunch will be available for purchase starting at 11:30 am. For more information, see the flier.

In addition, concerned faculty at New College have set up a Go Fund Me page to help them deal with a board more interested in ideological concerns than the college they oversee or the community they (are supposed to) represent.

Election Season!

Ballots are in the mail!

The election of chapter officers and representatives is underway, and ballots are in the mail. All ballots must be received by April 5, so vote and send in your ballot as soon as you receive it. For candidate statements, see the 2023 Chapter Election website. If you have not received your ballot, contact the chapter secretary.

Ballots will be counted at the April 7 Chapter meeting. All UFF members (except for candidates for offices) are welcome to help count ballots, and all UFF members are welcome to observe. The chapter meeting will be at 12 pm on USF Tampa campus in EDU 415; Zoom invitations will be sent out on April 6, and if you want a Zoom invitation, contact the chapter secretary.

IMPORTANT! After the election, we will still have a number of vacancies, and we need all the help we can get. If you want to get involved and find out how it all works, contact the chapter secretary. Unions are part of democracy, and democracy is not a spectator sport.

LOGISTICS

NOTE: The USF-UFF Chapter website is http://www.uff.ourusf.org, and our e-mail address is uff@ourusf.org.

About this broadcast: This Newsletter was broadcast from uff.ourusf.org, hosted at ICDsoft.com, and is intended for all USF Senior Administrators and Trustees.

The UFF USF Biweekly is a newsletter whose regular issues are sent out every other week to employees on the UFF USF Bargaining Unit, to people who have requested guest subscriptions, and the the USFTALK listserv. If you would like a guest subscription, contact the Chapter Secretary. Past issues are posted on the newsletter archive.

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