State Salaries Should Rise, But Not At Expense of Freedom

 Adrian Andrews of WFSU interviewed AFSCME Florida's Nat Bender, who pointed out that "while most state workers will see their pay go up, the state is also placing more roadblocks on their ability to join a union. SB 256, a plan to eliminate automatic salary withdrawals for union dues, is moving forward over the objections of public employee unions." 

Bender said, “We believe the intent of it is to discourage union members by procedurally making it more difficult for the members to exercise their freedom to join the union.”

Tell Governor DeSantis:Stand up for freedom and veto SB 256. 

In addition, Bender worries without a COLA increase that is not moving forward, retirees won’t be able to keep up with inflation.

“We were hopeful that the cost-of-living assessments would be restored to the retirement system,” said Bender. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. But frankly to keep up with rising cost, we believe the state retirees deserve the COLA restored and we would like to see that happen.”

The FRS is the Florida Retirement System.

To listen to the daily podcast that includes this report, go to 11:35 mark of this podcast. 

Full article: Florida state employees could see a pay bump in DeSantis’ budget proposal