The Florida Public Employer Labor Relations Association, otherwise known as FPELRA, started as a result of the Public Employee Relations Act, PERA, in 1974. With the enactment of the PERA public agencies scrambled to establish a labor relations function. Often they appointed an individual in the agency to head up this function, but there was not much expertise in this area resident in the State of Florida.

Seeing the need for new practitioners to meet and share their fledgling information, a group of five who had been networking prior to these occurrences decided to call for a meeting to discuss ‘best practices’ which were skimpy at most. It was at the second such meeting in Orlando in 1974 that the idea of a professional association dedicated to the public employer in the State of Florida was born.

The thought was that FPELRA would provide the highest standard of excellence in assisting and representing jurisdictions required to engage in collective bargaining under Chapter 447, F. S., The Public Employees Relations Act, and that we would be devoted to providing a unique opportunity for the exchange of perspective, information and skills in the field of public sector labor relations in the State of Florida.

Since those days, FPELRA has evolved into the primier association for providing State of Florida specific training, continuing education and networking opportunities to public sector Labor Relation professionals