Jax Daily

A bill promoted as a protection of the democratic right to secret ballot elections was not handled very democratically by a Senate panel that cut off debate Wednesday so it could approve the measure before its time expired, several unions members said after the vote.

The bill (SJR 1908), which seeks to guarantee that unionization could only occur through a secret ballot, was one of 14 pieces of legislation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s agenda for its two-hour meeting Wednesday. Most of the measures were relatively free of discussion and easily approved, but as it has been in every committee stop this year, the “card check” bill was neither.

Members of several Florida unions, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the AFL-CIO and the Association of Federal, State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), lined up to oppose the bill, which was the last item taken up by the committee. But pressed against a deadline of 12:15 p.m., the panel approved a motion for a time certain vote of 12:13 p.m.

The member who made that motion, Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, then moved to reconsider the deadline for the vote as it approached, but her second motion failed 4-4, much to the chagrin of the unions.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re having a discussion on democracy and today what we saw was workers were silenced,” said AFL-CIO spokesman Christian Ulvert. “Workers who came all the way from Miami drove up here to speak to this committee to share their thoughts on the legislation….. It’s unfortunate. These voters wanted to come engage in their democratic process and they wanted to speak.”

Ulvert added that the hurried nature of the meeting Wednesday as lawmakers rushed to get through testimony was also counterproductive.

“Those who were able to get up to the podium were kind of rushed through their thoughts, and what’s worse, their colleagues on the dais were not given opportunity to express their thoughts and have an open dialogue on legislation before their committee,” Ulvert said.

A few lawmakers were visibly unhappy too, including Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, who left the meeting before it was adjourned in a huff after voting no on the bill.

“Workers from all over the state have come here, and my concern is to take their testimony,” Gelber said before the vote on the motion to end debate. “We can always hear it in another meeting if we need too. While I appreciate wanting to do it by a certain time, I would urge the chair to try to take at least the employees who have traveled from around the state.”

But Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, the chairman of the Judiciary committee, said there was not much he could do since the motion to cut off debate was already approved.

“I’m trying to get through this, and I expressed that to every single person here,” Constantine told Gelber. “When people come up and start talking, I’m not going to interrupt them.”

Constantine added that the card check bill has been thoroughly debated already, having already been heard now in two previous committees.

“I think this is a pretty clear yay/nay,” he said. “Everybody understands this issue.”

Still, Constantine joined Democrats Joyner, Gelber and Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, in voting for a second motion to reconsider the deadline. But with the motion having failed to garner majority support, Constantine called for a vote on the bill, which was approved on a party line 5-3 vote, and adjourned the meeting.

The card check bill has stops in two more committees before it is ready for a vote of the full Senate. A companion measure in the House (HJR 1013) has been approved by two committees in that chamber, but still has one to go before being ready for the floor in the lower chamber.