(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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Teamsters leaders say further action may be taken to oppose Senate union bill [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-21
Amid a protest and caravan outside the Iowa Capitol, a leader with the Teamsters union said Wednesday that public sector employees may withhold off-hours work if a Senate proposal related to collective bargaining advances.
Honking could be heard inside the Iowa State Capitol as a caravan of Teamsters-affiliated semi trucks and others circled the building Wednesday morning. A plane with a banner reading “Kill Senator Dickey’s union busting bill!” flew overhead.
The actions were in opposition to Senate File 2374, a bill available for consideration in the Iowa Senate. The legislation amends a 2017 law on public employees’ collective bargaining rights, which included restrictions like limiting contract negotiations to base wages and requiring unions be recertified roughly 10 months before each negotiation period — typically once every two to three years.
Under current law, government employers are required to submit lists of their employees to the Public Employee Relations Board before recertification votes, in which workers are asked if they want to keep their union representation. If the list is not submitted, a vote is not held and contracts are negotiated through the existing representation.
The 2024 legislation would require the decertification of public employee bargaining units if the government employer fails to provide lists to the PERB within 10 days of receiving written notice of intent to conduct a certification election. Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, claimed that some public employers were purposefully not holding recertification votes and abridging worker’s rights to choose whether to be a part of a union.
“That’s what this is all about, is the employees are having their voice taken away by the collusion of a representative and a public employer,” Schultz said during a February Senate Workforce Committee meeting.
The bargaining units — unions — or their representatives could petition the district court to require the public employer to submit a list of employees in the bargaining unit to PERB.
Democrats and union groups have strongly disagreed with Republicans’ characterization of the bill, saying it is a measure to punish unions for the failure of government employers. Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, introduced an amendment to the bill to penalize employers, not bargaining units, in situations where an employee list is not submitted on time. The amendment failed on a 6-6 vote in committee.
“If you’re going to say a public employer has done something wrong, failed to provide a list for a bargaining units so an election can be held, the penalties should be on the person who has failed to uphold their duty,” Boulton said. “… The penalties should not be decertifying the union because the employer didn’t provide a list. The penalties should not be forcing the union to go out and do something when the employer didn’t do their end of the bargain and their legal obligation.”
Schultz argued that the onus was put on bargaining units because there is no reason for the government employers to not submit a list outside of “backing” their union representative.
“The current law right now as it sits offers no incentive for a hostile employer to withhold the list,” Schultz said. “That tells us the only reason to withhold the list is to avoid an election. … And in doing so, you are removing the voice of your workers. I’m gonna fight for the voice of those workers.”
During the one-hour protest Wednesday, Jesse Case, Teamsters Local 238 Secretary-Treasurer, held a news conference on the Capitol steps. Flanked by Democratic lawmakers and union members, Case said the “union-busting bill” was an attempt by legislators to further hurt public servants and workers’ rights in the footsteps of the 2017 law.
“Public sector bargaining law wasn’t broken in 2017, and they broke it,” Case said. “Now they want to break it some more. Well guess what? We’ve had enough, and our members are not obligated to go above and beyond the call of duty while they’re under attack.”
Case said some government employees, including county road crews and sanitation workers and school bus drivers, are often illegally on call at night to deal with unexpected problems. He said if the Senate bill advances, public workers will not respond to calls from their employers outside of their designated work hours. He said Iowans should look to the Iowa Senate Workforce Committee chair, Sen. Adrian Dickey — who introduced the bill — when workers do not answer calls in the middle of the night to fix a small town’s sewage system or start plowing snow before their work day is scheduled to begin.
“I’m telling you right now, the next time that there’s a union-busting bill signed into law, people across this state will start feeling the affects of service,” Case said. “… If they’re not getting paid to do it, we’re gonna tell people stop working for free. And don’t call us, call Sen. Dickey.”
Having union members only work during their scheduled hours does not constitute a strike or work stoppage, Case told reporters — and added that it is already against the law to have someone on call while not being paid. But he said further actions, like strikes, may come in the future.
“We’re looking at all options,” he said. “We’re raising money right now to pay for any fines levied on us in case we do have strikes, but there’s other ways to do it.”
The legislation is available for consideration by the full Senate. While Case said union members have heard there is “not a big appetite” for the proposal in the House, he is not putting faith into the process being slowed down in the other chamber.
“We’ve been lied to before and we’re not going to stand around waiting to be lied to again,” Case said.
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