The Florida Roundup - New Florida law threatens labor unions, and six years since Parkland 

Episode Date: February 16, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, a WLRN investigation looks into how a new state law is eliminating public unions that had represented tens of thousands of state and public government workers. We spoke with the reporter behind that investigation (01:33) and as well as the law’s sponsor in the Florida House (12:06). And six years later, we remember the Parkland 17 (37:44) and look at how the March For Our Lives movement has impacted the NRA’s influence nationally (38:57). Plus, we hear about a Florida man briefly stealing the spotlight on Superbowl Sunday (45:21) and another Florida man who did something no one else has done in a Super Bowl and now is going to the Hall of Fame (47:16).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. Today is really a day about doing a lot for teachers in the state of Florida. That was Governor Ron DeSantis in early May of last spring. He was getting ready to sign five bills into law. One bill changed how teachers and members of most public worker unions in Florida pay union dues. And what happens to those unions if not enough members pay their fees?

Now on that spring day last May, this is how the governor described the legislation. Paycheck protection. You know, you have this situation with school unions, you have a right to not do it. But what they do is they provide authorization forms, blanket authorization for deduction, automatic deduction of dues. Instead, teachers and other public union workers have to write a check if they want to pay

dues to their union, which collectively bargains with school districts and local governments over salary, benefits and working conditions. That is going to lead to more take-home pay for teachers because they're not going to have as many deductions in their paycheck. It's not just public school teachers. It's administrative workers, bus drivers, mechanics, and others who have been covered by a union contract. Now the law does something else. It requires most public sector unions to have at least six out of ten covered employees actually paying their dues or the union could lose its collective bargaining rights.

An investigation by our partner station, WLRN in Miami, finds for the first time tens of thousands of public sector union workers in Florida have lost their unions. We will hear from the law laws sponsor in the Florida House representative Dean Black from Northeast Florida in a few minutes. Was this what he and supporters intended? How is this law reshaping some Florida government worker unions but not others, especially those representing police and firefighters? Are you in a public union like a teachers union, maybe working at a 911 call center sanitation sanitation work, doing administrative work for a local government?

Do you pay dues? What do you know about your collective bargaining status? Call us now, 305-995-1800, 305-995-1800, or email radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Your calls and emails coming up in a moment. WLRN investigative reporter Danny Rivera collected hundreds of pages of documents showing the far-reaching impacts of this law for the first time. Danny, how many union workers here in Florida are at risk of no longer being able to collectively bargain over salaries,

benefits, and their working conditions. Over 42,000 state employees, including people like office clerks, court workers, driver's license examiners, they have already lost their right to collectively bargain after four statewide bargaining units have been totally decertified by the state just in the last couple of weeks. Municipal employees of cities like Oakland park, high Springs, Naples, Jacksonville, Sebring, Bradenton have all been fully decertified. It's hundreds of people there. And then you're talking about groundskeepers, custodians, secretaries and other staff at the biggest public universities in the state that have all lost their collective bargaining rights. Their bargaining units

have been disbanded by the state. And there's tens of thousands of people. They haven't fully lost it, but the process of being decertified has already started. It's really breathtaking, these numbers that you're reporting for the first time, Danny. Tens of thousands of Floridians losing that right to collectively bargain with their employer. So why are these unions being decertified? Well, this goes back to a law that was passed last year. It was Senate Bill 256. It required almost all public sector unions to have at least 60% of the members paying dues. This has never been a requirement before. It's a huge hurdle for a lot of unions. The second part of it is

the state and counties and municipalities, for most unions, they can no longer automatically deduct dues from paychecks. So there's two parts of it. More people have to pay dues and it's harder to pay dues. So what I've been looking at is who is this happening to? What about other public union members? We still have a lot of unions that have not filed the recertification reports. This is kind of rolling information. We're starting to understand this is a massive thing that's happening in organized labor in Florida. In part of my reporting, I talked to Rich Templin. He's the director of politics and public policy for the AFL-CIO Florida. That is the largest labor organization in the state, representing over 500 unions.

The work conditions of these hundreds of thousands of people are going to be up in the state, representing over 500 unions. The work conditions of these hundreds of thousands of people are going to be up in the air. And that's real lives, right? That's not politics. That's not pro-union, anti-union. It's none of that. It's people's lives are going to be upended. And it will take time for Floridians to feel that.

What do we know about how teacher unions are faring? The decertification process has already been started in places like Miami-Dade County, Seminole County, St. John's County, Escambia County in the Panhandle. It's tens of thousands of teachers and employees that are somewhere in the decertification process with those counties alone. And then you have some county teacher unions that have hit their numbers, even though they say it wasn't easy, like in Manatee County on the Gulf Coast, they went from having 53% of people paying dues to about 73% of their members paying dues, a really big increase. percent of their members paying dues, a really big increase. When this bill was being debated in the legislature last year, Senate sponsor Republican Blaise N'Golia, he said he felt like this bill, his proposal, would actually make unions stronger on the backside and that they would have members that were more active, more engaged. This was going to actually benefit organized labor in the state.

I asked Manatee Education Association President Pat Barber, who's run that union for a long time, if she feels that the union's head is an incentive to be stronger and more organized. It's a threat to our folks. Many smaller and medium-sized county teacher unions have failed to hit their numbers, and they're starting the process of being decertified. So that includes places like Columbia, Calhoun, and Highlands County, and also Citrus County on the Gulf Coast. So for the unions that are somewhere in the process of being decertified, what exactly does that mean for the teacher who's a member of that union or the 911 call center operator who's a member of the union? So if you fail to meet that 60% threshold, the union has 30 days to gather 30% of signatures or more to ask for a new election that needs to be run, saying essentially that the workers, a majority, still want to be represented by this

union. There's tens of thousands of people across the state of Florida that are kind of sitting in this limbo waiting to hold this election. Will the union survive or will it not? There's over 700 workers in the city of Hialeah, a big city here in South Florida, that are sitting in this limbo. They don't know if their union is going to survive. There's over a thousand supervisor employees in Miami-Dade County and over a thousand supervisors in Broward County that are awaiting, you know, is it going to survive or not? Governor DeSantis in his proposed budget for the next year, he's asking for a lot more money for the state agency that handles this, the Public Employee Relations Commission, to handle the expected huge wave of union elections that are going to be happening over the next couple months.

It sounds like with your reporting, that's exactly what the future holds for these unions as they try to remain in force. Yeah, that's right. And then you have places like the city of Ocala in north central Florida, and they're throwing up their hands and saying there's nothing they can do. They're not even going to try to gather the signatures to try to run an election. I talked with Lanny Mathis Jr. He's a business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electric Roll Workers that's represented that union in the city of Ocala for over a decade. that union in the city of Ocala for over a decade. I'm very sad.

I think that there's no great buy-in to reorganize, and I'm just afraid that there's nothing we can do. So essentially he's saying, give it a month or so, that union's done. It's dead. So not all public worker unions are affected by this law. We spoke about teachers' unions, talked about some administrative worker unions, for instance. Which ones, though, are exempt, Danny, from this threshold to have 60% of their members paying dues? Law enforcement unions, firefighter unions, and correctional officer unions. And then what was the rationale behind that from lawmakers who supported this change in state law? Why did they exempt these

public worker unions that include police and firefighters, for instance? Senate sponsor Blaise N'Golia last year said he could not, quote, in good conscience, impose the same rules that he created on police and firefighters. One thing to just note here is that Governor DeSantis last year called these measures, quote, paycheck protections. Under that logic, police and firefighters have less protections than anyone else. Something that, you know, frankly speaking, would defy all logic and political calculations. I mean, police and firefighter unions have been some of the core supporters of Governor DeSantis and Florida Republicans. So that really core inconsistency is widely seen as a thinly veiled attack on other unions that might go against Governor DeSantis and Florida Republicans, like teachers unions, while explicitly

protecting unions that are friendly with them. So what do we know if the rules were consistent across all public worker unions in Florida, that if all public worker unions needed to meet that 60% dues paying threshold? This is an interesting question. A lot of the exempted unions didn't even provide their numbers. They just checked the box saying, we're exempt. But a few of the unions did provide their numbers, and that's pretty revealing. So like, here's an example, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, only about 16 percent of more than 700 employees paid their dues. But they are under no threat of being decertified. They're completely safe. Right. Police department in the town of Indian Shores listed 33% of officers paying dues.

The town of Bel Air and also in Pinellas listed 35%. Both those unions are completely safe. Opponents point to that and say, like, that's proof this whole thing is unfair because you have unions representing teachers and sanitation workers that are over 50% dues paying and they're potentially losing their union. And then here you have police officers well under half that they're totally safe. So are you a member of a police or firefighters union? Do you pay dues? And what do you make of the impact of this law on many public worker unions? 305-995-1800. Your phone calls in a few minutes. 305-995-1800. Danny, Representative Dean Black is with us. He is from Northeast Florida, and he sponsored the legislation in the House last year.

Representative Black, welcome to our program, and thanks for your time. The collective bargaining units representing more than 42,000 public union workers in Florida have been decertified since this law that you sponsored went into effect. Was that your intention? Well, I'm not sure that I agree with your predicate assumption. I think they have applied for recertification. That's not necessarily the same thing as being decertified. Representative, according to the state, the Public Employees Relations Commission, they have been fully decertified. They did not meet the threshold to ask for a reelection to be decertified. What happens under the bill that we passed last year is if you fail to meet the required membership levels, then you have to petition for recertification. And then in that process, what that means is you can stand for election and you can be nominated to be reelected

as the bargaining agent. Someone else, some other union could also come in and offer the workers a choice. And at that point, the workers have a choice to choose the union they had, a different union, or they can choose to have no union at all. And those are the rights that are guaranteed to them under the Florida Constitution. Over 40,000 state employees have lost their unions. I mean, they were not able to gather enough signatures to ask for an election. The union has technically been decertified. Was that your intention when you passed this law for that to happen? I think you're mischaracterizing what actually happens under the law. The law doesn't decertify them. The workers may choose that through an elective

process. And that is right and proper, just as right and proper as it is for me to stand for election before my constituents every two years. And Representative, as you just mentioned, the Florida Constitution, I'll read it in part, the key section. It says, the right of employees by and through a labor organization to bargain collectively shall not be denied or abridged. Are you confident that this law that was passed does not deny or abridge the right to collectively bargain? Absolutely. What it does is guarantee that the power to make these decisions rests with the workers themselves and that they have the information that they need in order to judge the bargaining agent that they have and make a decision for themselves

as to whether this is in their best interest or not. What happens to those workers who had been working under a collective bargaining contract that has not yet expired, but their collective bargaining unit has now been decertified? Again, I have not been notified of any union that has actually been decertified by their workers. Well, so just to be clear, decertification could happen if a union does not meet the threshold under the law you sponsored, and then the union goes out to collect signatures, as is allowed under the law, and those signatures do not materialize by default. That union then would be decertified. Which is to say, then, that they lack support.

That's correct. The workers themselves. Right. Correct. And so that's a decision that the workers make. So what happens with those collective bargaining contracts that are still in force, that are still not expired, but yet the workers have not recertified their union? but yet the workers have not recertified their union. I think that has to be determined probably on a contract by contract basis. And I'm not sure that'd be a question for PERC. The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office had only 16% of eligible members who paid dues last year.

But under the law you sponsored, they are under no risk at all of losing their union or losing their contract or having to go through recertification. We have teachers unions, for example, that are over 50% dues paying, and they are at risk of losing their unions. Why are these two kinds of public sector workers treated under different standards under this law? We treat public safety workers differently for all sorts of things. They're always, frankly, treated as a completely different class. And this bill didn't address that. That would require a different piece of legislation. And that's not a bill that I'm running.

The current bill, it will actually expand some of the exceptions for public safety workers. expand some of the exceptions for public safety workers. That bill would, I think, exempt some transit union workers in the state of Florida. But back to that question, why have two different standards for public worker unions? Practice in the state of Florida, and not frankly just in Florida, but all across the country, has been to treat public safety workers differently. They keep us safe. You know, they march into burning buildings instead of running away. They go toward the sound of gunfire. We treat them differently for purposes of retirement and all manner of things. And so they are ordinarily treated as an entirely separate entity. This bill that I have run has been designed to

address all of the other workers. There are paramedic unions that are under threat of being decertified under this. Those are not first responders? We in House Bill 1471 will be exempting some of those workers. When Governor DeSantis signed your bill into law last spring, he specifically said one reason he supported it was because of how teacher unions had opposed some of his priorities. A lot of the school unions are responsible for doing politics about different things that the state is doing, unlike standards or parents' rights. Public unions are not prevented from engaging in political activities. Was this law payback? What this law is, is an attempt to protect workers. If the union wants to exercise rights that it has under the law to engage in politics then they can do that but the workers ought to know how their money is being spent they should

know what their dues cost and exactly what's being done with that money and then the workers themselves can decide whether or not that represents a good value to them and whether or not they like what that union is doing. Representative Dean Black is a Republican from Nassau County. Representative, thanks for your time today. We appreciate it. Thank you very much. Now, still to come, your phone calls and emails. Public worker unions in Florida are shrinking under this new law. 305-995-1800. 305-995-1800 305-995-1800 You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. This is the Florida Roundup.

I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks again for being along with us this week. A public media investigation finds a new state law is quietly eliminating public unions that had represented tens of thousands of state and public government workers here in Florida. The law requires most public unions to have at least 60 percent of their members pay dues. And if not, the unions have to be reelected. Teacher unions are affected by this. Andrew Spahr is the president of the Florida Education Association. When lawmakers pass legislation that seeks to strip away the rights,

freedoms and voices of these valued members of our community, they're really attacking our communities as a whole. Now, the Florida Education Association has sued over this law. Teachers and other public workers can form unions under the Florida Constitution, but they cannot go on strike. Mason Dixon released a poll in January that showed voters are so fed up with the conversations around public schools that more than 70 percent of respondents thought teachers in Florida should have the right to strike. In other words, things are so bad in our public schools that voters believe teachers should have significant recourse. Now, that poll that Spar refers to was conducted for an organization called

Hedge Clippers, which is a group of labor and community activist groups nationwide. The poll was of a of Floridians. 305-995-1800 is our phone number as we're live on this Friday afternoon along with you statewide here in the Sunshine State. You can also email us your thoughts, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org or 305-995-1800. From our partner station, WLRN investigative reporter Danny Rivero is the one who's pulled all this together, and he continues to be with us. Danny, a couple of emails have come in, and then we're going to get to a lot of phone calls. Stick with us.

Terry in Melbourne writes, I can think of nothing more regressive than these union policies. How frozen have worker wages been since the early 70s and only have come up a little in recent months. Teachers will not come here if their unions are disempowered. That's what Terry writes from Melbourne. Nicole says that I'm a member of a public sector union in the Florida college system, United Faculty of Florida. I know exactly the status of my union. We are re-certified with over 60% membership. Nicole writes, we also gained membership because of this law. This is absolutely brazen union busting, Nicole writes, but only for those public sector unions who the governor and the legislature don't like,

those less likely to vote Republican. Let's hear from Lewis in Orlando, who's been listening intently. Lewis, you are on the radio. Go ahead and thanks for your patience. Yes, thank you. I work for Orange Go ahead, and thanks for your patience. Yes, thank you. I work for Orange County government, and this is affecting my union. And we are covered under the union, whether we pay dues or not. So this actually is,

I'm not sure how this is protecting me, but this seems to actually just be doing away with my union and I have nothing to do with the teachers union and I'm a utilities worker and thank you for calling Lewis um I mean have you received any communication from your union have they you know are they trying to get more people to pay dues to keep the union alive like what are you actually hearing from from your union surprisingly i'm not hearing that much so uh it's hard for me to argue for the union with the new employees being brought aboard uh because i'm not hearing anything from the union and i call the office and uh they'll say they get back to me but i don't hear anything and and lewis

They'll say they get back to me, but I don't hear anything. And, Lewis, I mean, what would be at stake? Like, if you lose your collective bargaining, what could that mean? Are there things in your contract that you fear might go away if you don't have that contract protection? A lot of things will go away. A lot of rights that we have, you know, to have union representation, to make sure that our rights are being held. HR really doesn't go towards the employee. They more follow towards the management.

So, yeah, I'm not sure. Lewis, I appreciate you kind of sharing your concern and confusion at this point as a union member there in Orange County. Let's hear from Joseph, who is calling in from Tampa. Joseph, thanks for your time today. You're on the radio. Thank you for having me. Go ahead. I guess my comment, well, first of all, the representative, I just caught a little bit of his conversation, said that the law was to protect workers. What a specious claim.

If that were the case, why would they have the other bill that stopped teachers from allowing their dues to be deducted from their paycheck simultaneously with this new threshold of 60% membership? That's just a specious argument, plain and simple. Secondly, right now we have about 47% of our members. We need 60%. Before that change where they couldn't have them deducted from their paycheck, we had over 60%.

The process itself of signing up to have your dues taken out of your bank account through a third party, it's difficult, especially when you're talking about 14,000 people. So right now we're sitting at 47. We should have the numbers that we had before, had that not happened. So what we're doing now is a Hail Mary effort of getting those signature cards that were discussed earlier, and at the cost of about $20,000. It's about $1.65 per card, plus the teachers that are on site that are the reps from their school, they're the ones doing

that work, taking away from everything else that they could and should be doing. So I just think that his statement is completely specious, and I cannot have respect for that. And, Joseph, the financial resources that you're talking about for that teachers' union, is it in Hillsborough County, Pinellas County? It is right here in Hillsborough County. In Hillsborough County. Proud cowboy from Gaither High School.

And so the financial resources, does the union have that in order to collect those cards and to go about the re-election, essentially? Yes, they have to have them. Unfortunately, that $20,000 could be spent a million other ways other than that. Joseph, thanks for sharing your experience there from Hillsborough County, 305-995-1800. Daytona Beach, Janet has been listening in. Janet, thanks for your patience. Oh, sorry, Janet, you had something else to do, but we appreciate you listening in anyway.

Let's hear from, I want to go to, let's see, Albert. Albert, who has been listening in from Orlando. Albert, go ahead. You are now on the radio. Everything that the prior caller said, Joseph, is spot on. I'm a teacher here in Osceola County, member of the Osceola County Education Association, the Osceola County Education Association. And we're also sitting at that 47% threshold where our county and our district is trying to get to 60% as well.

And what I want Floridians to realize is, you know, collective bargaining is not only a matter of trying to bargain for higher wages for employees, which are wages that are also going to be earned by everyone in the school district who's an educator, whether they're in a union or not. But also the fact that this is going to severely impact recruitment of teachers coming into the state or have teachers leave the state if they're not going to be able to benefit from collective bargaining and also legal representation that the union affords us. If the union is certified, if anyone is bringing an allegation of misconduct against an educator,

we have legal representation after decert, then educators who are already financially strapped are going to have to seek out and pay for their own legal representation. And you're going to see a lot of teachers just leave the profession. We already have a serious and critical teacher shortage in the state of Florida, or you're going to have teachers who would try to transfer to other districts where they can join a union. So that's the repercussions of this speeches bill, which is really a union busting measure in disguise. Thanks so much for the thoughts. And Tom, I just want to add here, a lot of the

growing pains, the struggles that Florida's education system are going through right now, struggle for higher pay, for hiring, et cetera, a lot of this same things played out in 1968, which Florida actually was the first state in the country that had a statewide teacher strike. And that happened right when the state was rewriting the state constitution. And the fact that things were so bad created the constitutional right in Florida for collective bargaining. It was really an explicit deal.

It's like, teachers, you can form your unions. You can't strike, but you can form your unions. You can't strike, but you can form your union. Because in exchange for the right to collectively bargain. Right. And so, you know, I talked to the union leader out of Citrus County, Christian Gallery, who told me they're reneging on the deal on the deal. Like if, if we can't collectively bargain, you got to let us strike, but you, you know, like,

like there's a deal here and well, you know, some people feel like that deal is being broken. Yeah. We'll see if the, if that winds up in court under this. Right. But you certainly heard from representative black saying that,

you know, the workers still have the right to collectively bargain. They still have the right to form a union, join a union, re-elect their union if they don't meet the threshold that this law has. And that is true. But I think what's playing out in the courts and the court challenges is where are the goalposts? And you might have this right, but if you set up the rules to make it more and more difficult for X amount of employees to exercise that right, is it actually a right?

Right. And it's moved, right, that dues-paying threshold has moved to a supermajority now of members, from a 50% to a 60%. Let's hear from Gabrielle, who has been listening in and very patient, from Tampa. Go ahead, Gabrielle. You are on the radio. Gabrielle, stick with us. I believe maybe line one, possibly. Nope. Okay. We may have a line two for Gabrielle, which you may have dropped off as well. No problem. Let's go to Melba, who's been

listening in from Palmetto Bay in South Florida. Melba, thanks for your patience and joining us on the radio. Hi. Hello. Yes. What I'd like to know is, does the union president and officers, does their salary come out of the members' contributions? Yeah. How do the union administrators, the executives that are running the union, how do they get paid? Where do their funds come from? Right. Another thing. Another question is, what is their salary? We never hear what their salary is. different part of the law that was passed last year. But part of it is that public sector unions do have to be more transparent about pay of the presidents and vice presidents and whatnot. And those things are submitted to the state now in a more transparent way than it's been. I don't have that in front of me. And it depends what union we're talking about. But that was included in this law. More transparency. And the ability for a union to do business comes from the dues that

members pay. That's the revenue that is used for these unions to operate administratively and otherwise. David and Newberry sends us this email. The attack on unions is working exactly as intended. Dismantle the unions. David writes, unions are a way that citizens get power. A core principle of the Republicans in the Florida legislature is to never share power, David writes. So they make happy talk to disguise efforts to destroy unions. That's David and Newberry joining our conversation. Let's go ahead and hear from Ted, who has been listening in. Ted, go ahead. You are on the radio.

Thank you. My, go ahead. You are on the radio. Thank you. My name is Ted. I was a proud member of Orange County Firefighters Local 57 in Orange County. My wife and I both for 25 years. My wife is still in the union, is working for the union. To answer the other caller's question, working for the union, to answer the other caller's question, our union's president makes the base salary of a Step 2 firefighter, and vice presidents and lower down the line get a certain percentage of that.

So that's how they calculate that. calculate that. But yeah, it seems ridiculous to me that DeSantis wants to have the firefighters and police standing behind him when the camera's running and while he's calling union teachers something that needs to be gotten rid of to bust them. I would like to know, maybe somebody has the information in front of them, how many police and firefighters and corrections officers are actually married to a school teacher? Good question. I know my mother and sisters were all union school teachers. They ended up leaving the state to go other places, Georgia and North Carolina, for better benefits.

Yeah. Yeah. Ted, interesting thought experiment there. I don't think the state agency behind this captures that kind of marital information, but interesting question and self-reflective question. Ted, thanks for joining the conversation and sharing your experience there. Let me remind folks here that you are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Investigative reporter Danny Rivero is with us as we are talking about the

early implications that have come in of a new law in Florida that was signed into law back in July and has really come into force over the last several months regarding most public worker unions in Florida. Let's hear from Jim. Jim is joining us from the capital city in Tallahassee. Jim, thanks for listening and for joining the conversation. You're on the radio. Thank you for taking my call. I've been working in the public sector, labor relations in Florida for about 45 years. I retired recently. I was on the employer side. But I just want to make a couple of points. First of all, back to the Constitution. It's really hard to argue that this legislation does not abridge the right to collectively bargain. I mean, I know that the argument is, well, employees can still exercise it.

But from my perspective, it clearly abridges the right to collective bargaining. collective bargaining. If it doesn't, then is any threshold, for example, if the legislature said that 90% dues were required in order to have a union in place, would that be an abridgment? So I think there's a serious question there of constitutionality. Florida is the only state in the United States that has collective bargaining as a constitutional right. Thank you. Thank you, Jim. And I just want to bring up for our listeners. I mean, another state law that came up constantly when I was talking to people for my reporting was Act 10 out of Wisconsin in 2011. Huge story nationally. It was intended to basically slash public sector union membership,

and it succeeded in that. But it was based on an annual vote. Union law in this country is generally about who votes to be represented. And Florida is a right to work state. You don't have to pay dues. And, you know, in some of the challenges in the courts about this right now, it's unionization is about people voting to be represented. You don't have to pay dues. That's what this Florida law really turns on its head.

It makes the more important part, are you paying? The money. You might vote to approve a contract, and a supermajority might vote to approve a contract, but if you're not paying, it's changing the actual nature of what it is to collectively bargain. Jim, we've got to run on our end, but I really appreciate you listening and spending some time with us here on the floor, Dorando from Tallahassee and sharing your experiences. Danny, terrific work. You have built a database that folks can click on and look to see if their union or a union of a spouse or a member of their family has reported so far. You can find that at WLRN.org. Still to come, how the Parkland shooting six years ago has helped reshape

the National Rifle Association. That's next. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Valentine's Day was Wednesday, just like it was six years ago. That's when the deadliest high school shooting in America happened here in Florida. 17 people were killed, 17 were injured when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Victims, families, and neighbors all gathered Wednesday night to remember those lost and hurt. Reporter Gerard Albert III was there. Religious leaders prayed. May their souls rest in peace. Remember those lost and hurt. Reporter Gerard Albert III was there. Religious leaders prayed.

May their souls rest in peace. Musicians played songs. And hundreds gathered at the park just a mile away from the high school. Shana Lardy came with her daughter, who was at a nearby elementary school during the shooting it's hard it's it's you know hard to kind of dig it all up again but um it's just nice to commemorate everything and remember what happened and not forget as the event started news of another mass shooting spread at least one person died and 22 others were injured during a Super Bowl victory parade in Kansas City. It was an upsetting reminder for Tony Montalto. He lost his daughter Gina in the Parkland shooting.

Still, he finds hope in new legislation. We saw the bipartisan Safer Communities Act get passed, some of the most significant gun legislation to pass Congress in 30 years. So all these things are little steps. Montalto says a new school safety bill making its way through the state legislature is another reason he remains motivated to push for change. I'm Gerard Albert III in Parkland. Now for years, the National Rifle Association has served as a bulwark against gun regulations, even as some experts say gun violence has reached epidemic levels. For three decades, Wayne LaPierre led the NRA and became one of the country's most influential voices on gun policy. But his leadership has come to an end, thanks in

part to the movement started by student survivors of that shooting six years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. And to those politicians supported by the NRA that allow the continued slaughter of our children and our future, I say get your resumes ready. That's David Hogg, a Parkland survivor and a co-founder of March for Our Lives, speaking at the group's first rally in Washington in 2018. I'm Kate Payne. From its beginnings, March for Our Lives has targeted the NRA, with activists saying they would hound the organization until it no longer exists. Six years after Parkland, the NRA is in turmoil. The NRA announced today that Wayne LaPierre is leaving his... Wayne LaPierre resigned

last month ahead of a corruption trial in New York. He and other executives are accused of misusing millions of dollars of the nonprofit's funds for personal expenses like exotic vacations and custom-tailored suits. In a statement following the resignation, the NRA has said LaPierre built an organization bigger than him and that the group's future is, quote, bright and secure. The case in New York was spurred in part by complaints that March for Our Lives made back in 2018, accusing the NRA of corruption. March for Our Lives has undoubtedly been a huge force of change. And this is a big part of our movement. It's not just marching on the ground and holding rallies and, you know, doing all of those important things. But it's also really coming at the people that have corrupted our government and all of the leaders that are supposed to be saving us.

I spoke with McKennan McBride of March for Our Lives about the role the group has played in taking down the NRA. What did you all make of the resignation of Wayne LaPierre after three decades leading the NRA? What were the group texts like when the news broke? Oh, yeah, it was definitely immediately sent in our staff channel. It was shocking, but also not, I would say. I mean, from demanding legal action to campaigns that highlighted their illegal and immoral activities, March for Our Lives took on the NRA time and time again. And since we marched in 2018, they've lost over a million members. I mean, the NRA today is really a shell of what it once was. And they've really learned the hard truth that young people and

survivors are forced to be reckoned with. This is not just a fad. It's not just a moment. It really is a movement that's bringing about real change. And I think Wayne LaPierre's resignation and everything that's going on with these trials is a real symbol of that for everyone in our movement. So definitely the staff channel was popping off when we got this news. I wonder if you all have seen a difference in the group's political impact and reputation during this time. For a long time, the vast majority of Americans have supported common sense gun safety reforms. People are on board with background checks. They're on board with assault weapons bans. And as the NRA has kept diverging from what the American citizens want to protect themselves and to keep their families and their communities safe, they want these laws. And the NRA instead

just decided to peddle more money into Congress members to stop them from representing the people that they have a duty to protect. They've definitely lost people in the process. Once you start getting Buffaloes and Uvaldes back to back and all of these tragedies just flooding our news stream, it's impossible for Americans, for gun owners, for NRA members themselves on the ground in their own communities to see this happen and not think that this institution has a part in it. Even with the NRA in turmoil as it is, there is still considerable

resistance to gun control among lawmakers. You know, there's no more federal assault weapons ban, no federal law requiring universal background checks. Here in Florida, state lawmakers are considering rolling back a law that was passed in direct response to Parkland to allow people under 21 to buy a gun. What do you make of that? Oh, my goodness. So much to make of it. I think that a lot of people hone in on the NRA as this massive lobbying force and all the money that they have. But it's become more than that. Where their real power has been derived in recent decades is the political mobilization that they've managed. They may not have as many NRA members anymore, but they do have very politically active ones. And that's really what's also holding these lawmakers in the palms of their hands. It's

not just campaign donations. It's also them threatening lawmakers with electoral retribution, that they will not have their NRA members vote for these lawmakers if they support common sense gun safety legislation. And so that's where we still see this lag. Yes, the NRA may be bleeding money, their corruption may be finally coming to light from the underbelly, but that doesn't mean that they don't still have a more intangible political power among their base. And so what that means for March is we've really been trying to show people what the NRA has done. This all has been one big manufactured effort and really break apart that political mobilization.

How do you address those broader cultural beliefs around guns that are really deeply held in this country? For us, obviously, we're a youth-centered and run org, and that's so important for us. And the NRA has been able to amass this political influence outside of the money they have because they've mobilized a base that knows how to be politically engaged. And that's important for us to do too for young people. So many political leaders have said that, that young people at this moment in time are so fed up and have so much power within them to make change. And it's up to us to do that.

That was McKenna McBride of March for Our Lives. I'm Kate Payne. And I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Finally on the Roundup, football. Florida was well represented on the field at the Super Bowl last weekend, including two guys who were not even in the lineups for either the Chiefs or the 49ers. Oh, we got people on the field. Oh my goodness, we did. We got a streaker on the other. Well,

this was during the third quarter of Sunday's game. It was a partial streaker. Partial streaker. Yeah, partial streaker. Alex Gonzalez was shirtless. His social media handle was in marker across his chest. His friend, Sebastian Rivera, kept all his clothes on. Both guys, you probably guessed it by now, are from Florida. They're from Miami. Gonzalez describes himself online as a currency trader. And his run out of the stands was not a spur-of-the-moment decision on Super Bowl Sunday. He hatched his plan Friday night and by Saturday was committed.

I couldn't fall asleep because we've been simply focused on one thing and one thing only. We're streaking the Super Bowl, boys. So we're on our way right now to the stadium to study it, to see what we can learn, what can't we learn. So when we go streak, we are successful. We have a trading plan to trade, so we have a streaking plan when we streak. Yeah, the two shot video of their preparations all along, including buying tickets the day before the big game. I don't think you guys understand how much these tickets are. Like, I am paying $30,000 to get arrested.

With fees, those two tickets cost $42,000. Yes, the two were also arrested, taken to jail, and charged with misdemeanors. After smiling for their mugshots and being released from jail on Monday morning... That is the stupidest s*** I've ever done in my life. Was it worth it? Okay, well, we can't end the program on that kind of play. Instead, how about a Florida man who did something no one else has done in a Super Bowl and is now going to the Hall of Fame?

Here's Wilkin Brutus in Palm Beach County. 15, Hester 5. Touchdown, Bears! It was in 2007 during Super Bowl 41 in Miami when Riviera Beach native and the Chicago Bears player Devin Hester took the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts. No player had ever done that and no one has done it since. Jeff Joniak was the play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Bears then. Jeff Joniak was the play-by-play announcer for the Chicago Bears then. I called 19 of his 20 regular season touchdowns, plus that Super Bowl one. I remember vividly from Riviera Beach, Florida, to the biggest stage in sports.

Devin Hester, you are ridiculous. Joniak said Hester revolutionized how teams built their rosters for special teams. Hester is the first return specialist ever voted into the NFL's Hall of Fame, and he did it with flair. When he was mic'd up, you could hear him. You know, Soulja Boy, he loved that song, and that got the whole stadium cranked up, man.

It was a show. Very much a part of NFL lore. It'll be missed because I don't know that it will ever have anything like it ever again. Devin Hester is one of seven notable players in this year's NFL Hall of Fame class to be inducted in August. I'm Wilkin Brutus in Palm Beach County. And that's our program for this week. It's produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF Public Media in Tampa.

The program is produced by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's Technical Director is Peter Meritz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Hart. Richard Ives answers our phones. The theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. You can catch up any of today's program that you may have missed, download it, listen to past programs at wlrn.org slash podcasts. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and above all, supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson.

Have a terrific weekend.