Iowa Republicans Fast Track Assault on Public Employees

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

14 February 17

onight the Iowa House of Representatives and Iowa Senate will concurrently consider House File 291 (HF291) and Senate File 213 (SF213), the fast-tracked attack on Iowa’s working families.

Both chambers will burn the midnight oil to pass legislation to gut collective bargaining rights of Iowa’s public employees.

In response, Danny Homan, President of AFSCME Iowa Council 61, Tammy Wawro, President of the Iowa State Education Association, Ken Sagar, President of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, and Jesse Case, Secretary/Treasurer of Teamsters Local 238, issued the following joint statement:

Barely twenty-four hours after thousands of Iowans spoke against attacks on collective bargaining, Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate continue their assault on working people. Holding the debates concurrently, so citizens are unable to attend both sessions, is the height of cowardice.

Republican legislators heard over and over in public testimony from the working men and women this legislation affects that when public sector wages go down, private sector wages go down, rural schools will face teacher shortages, nursing jobs will continue to be hard to fill, and public safety jobs will be less attractive to fill.

As the legislative process moves forward we hope Republicans at the Statehouse listen to their constituents Iowa taxpayers, and voters and change their ill-advised course and vote against this legislation.

According to the Des Moines Register, the legislation would make the following changes:

Negotiations: For non-public safety employees, contract negotiations would be limited only to wages. That’s a significant change from current law, which requires benefits such as health insurance, vacation time and seniority perks, as well as work conditions such as hours, overtime pay and evaluation procedures, to be negotiated collectively. Additionally, many of those items that currently must be bargained for would be explicitly banned from future negotiations, including insurance and seniority benefits and evaluation procedures.

Re-certifications: Public workers would be required to re-certify the unions that bargain on their behalf with each new contract — that is, once every two to three years. To re-certify, a majority of workers in a bargaining unit would have to vote in favor of the union. That’s a change from current law, which requires only a majority of those who show up to vote. If the union failed to win that election, it would be decertified and the workers would be left without representation. Additionally, the union would be on the hook for costs associated with the re-certification process.

Payroll deductions: All public-employee unions would be barred from automatically deducting union dues and political contributions from members’ payroll checks.

Arbitrations: An independent arbitrator can help resolve contract negotiations when union members and management cannot reach an agreement on wages. Currently, the union and management would make its best offer and an arbitrator was required to choose the most reasonable of the two. The bill would require an arbitrator to consider the employer's ability to finance any wage increase. It also puts a cap on how much an arbitrator could raise wages. The wage increase could not exceed whichever is lower: 3 percent, or a percent equal to the cost of living increase outlined in the consumer price index.

Terminations: The bill strikes language from current law requiring that public employees must be suspended or terminated with proper cause. It makes employees, with the exception of teachers, "at-will" employees who could be fired for any reason.

Public safety: Public safety workers — including state troopers, police officers, firefighters and park rangers — are exempted from the bill’s furthest-reaching changes. Those groups would be subject to provisions eliminating the automatic deduction of union dues and political contributions from members' payroll checks.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.

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