By Trimmel Gomes, Florida News Connection
Florida's public employees face twin crises as federal collective bargaining rights suddenly disappear and state government jobs are cut, leaving workers uncertain about their futures and the stability of essential services.
A new White House executive order eliminating collective bargaining rights for federal workers has hit Florida particularly hard, as home to major military installations and thousands of federal employees.
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Rich Templin, director of politics and public policy for the Florida AFL-CIO, described the situation as "chaos of the highest order."
"When the Transportation Security Administration was set up, that was a big issue. They agreed to extend collective bargaining rights to those employees," Templin recounted. "This is a big deal, but I think what's most important is to understand is, we don't know the implications, just like we don't know the implications of mass layoffs."
The order has drawn fierce backlash from labor groups, including the national AFL-CIO, which called it an attack on key labor rights. Unions representing federal workers are weighing legal challenges as the White House defends the order as necessary for national security.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to eliminate 700 state jobs through a Musk-like government efficiency task force has drawn criticism. DeSantis' office said the cuts would improve efficiency.
Templin argued Florida's workforce, which is already the nation's smallest per capita, cannot absorb further reductions.
"This has been happening for 20 years: two decades that we've been asking our state workforce to do more with less," Templin pointed out. "What the governor's doing right now, he's not cutting fat, he's not cutting meat, he's cutting bone."
The proposed cuts include 142 positions at the Department of Health and 89 at the Agency for Health Care Administration, according to state workforce documents. Teachers, health care workers and transportation employees said the reductions come as they are already struggling with staff shortages.
