Florida attorney general sues Biden administration in dispute over unions

Florida’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over its pushback against a state law that centers around regulating unions.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), alleged that top administration officials, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, violated federal law by withholding millions of dollars in federal funding as retaliation against the law.

The suit claims the Biden administration is “attempting to leverage a vague and general condition on federal funding to prevent Florida from reforming its collective bargaining process.”

At the center of the lawsuit is a new law passed in Florida earlier this year that affects public employees in the state. It includes provisions like allowing members of unions to revoke their membership at any time, requiring unions to submit the number of due-paying members and banning public employers from deducting union fees from employee paychecks.

“These reforms are designed to ensure that public employees in Florida make a conscious and deliberate decision regarding their constitutional right to participate or not participate in a union,” the complaint reads. “They are also designed to ensure that public sector unions granted the significant power to act as the ‘exclusive bargaining agent’ for a class of public employees have the support of a critical threshold (60%) of those employees.” 

The law does not apply to law enforcement officers or firefighters, suggesting it will have the largest impact on teachers’ unions.

“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.,” Moody said in a statement “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.”

The lawsuit alleges that the Biden administration is withholding transportation infrastructure funding until Florida agrees to “arrangements the Secretary of Labor concludes are fair and equitable” to protect “the interests of employees affected by the assistance.” It says that its issue is with Florida agreeing to “provisions that may be necessary for … the continuation of collective bargaining rights.”

“The Department of Labor has given Florida an ultimatum — abandon the reforms enacted through SB 256 or lose hundreds of millions in federal funding,” the complaint states.

“Because that ultimatum is based on an unconstitutional funding condition and is otherwise contrary to law, Florida brings this suit to protect its access to critical funding and its sovereign prerogative to regulate in the realm of collective bargaining,” it continues.

The Hill has reached out to the Transportation and Labor departments for comment.