Workers in Florida would get additional protection under a bill filed yesterday by state Rep. Dean Black, R-Jacksonville.

While that sounds innocent, it is like to make liberal heads explode when they read the bill.

Teacher union bosses bankroll the Democrat Party and they are not going to like this bill, especially when it is up for a vote in a legislature with a Republican majority.

“Floridians should not be required to join a union to earn a living,” Black told Eye on Jacksonville.

“The Florida Constitution and our state laws protect both the right to work and the right to collectively bargain. My legislation simultaneously upholds both of these principles and gives Florida workers a choice to opt out of joining and contributing to a union they do not support.”

Black’s bill requires employees to sign a form before joining a union. The form advises them, in large type, that they are not required to join a union under state law and may quit at anytime if they do join. It explains they cannot be discriminated against either for joining or not joining.

It also requires that a union have 60 percent membership of employees before it can be certified.

Lastly, it ends automatic payroll deductions of dues. Employees will get their pay, then must write a check to the union to pay their dues, which are not cheap.

Previous attempts to pass measures like this have required legislators to get bodyguards from the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement after death threats.

It is notable that Black, a freshman legislator, has his name on the bill. Generally, senior legislators will sponsor controversial bills.

This is one of a number of bills in the session beginning Tuesday that liberals will hate. They will generate raging editorials in the Democrat media. But in the end, they will pass or fail by votes on the floor.

Republicans no longer are the meek, subservient party they were in Tallahassee 50 years ago. That is good news for Florida.