Political Football

National Federation of Independent Business/ IA (NFIB)

Last week the House Labor Committee passed by a unanimous vote HF 2645, a “technical” and non-controversial clean-up bill to Iowa’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Law.

Unfortunately, the bill did not stay that way. House Labor Committee Chairman Rick Olson (D-Des Moines) filed a 14-page amendment dramatically shifting the balance of power in labor negotiations to the unions and opened the door to requiring employees to pay union dues even if they are not a member.

Fortunately, this underhanded attempt to gut Iowa’s Right-to-Work Law was defeated. Rep. Brian Quirk (D-New Hampton), Rep. Swati Dandekar (D-Cedar Rapids) along with other key Democrat and Republican legislators moved quickly and forced House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (D-Des Moines) to offer an amendment protecting Iowa’s Right to Work Law. That amendment passed 98-0.

From this debate the good news is that Iowa’s Right to Work Law is protected. The bad news is the remainder of the bill greatly tips the negotiating power to the labor unions as they negotiate with school districts, city and county government, and public hospitals.

Here are some quick points on HF 2645:

Iowa’s 34 year-old public employee collective bargaining Shifts the negotiating balance of power to the public labor union
Virtually any subject can now be a matter of negotiation, current law requires both parties to agree to discuss a specific subject
Management of employees becomes more difficult as work shifts, staffing levels, and schedules become part of negotiations and subject to the arbitrator
Decisions will be shifted from locally elected officials to an arbitrator

Property Taxpayers will bear the burden. The bill now moves to the Senate where they will be debating the bill over the weekend. Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Ron Wieck (R-Sioux City), are focused on delaying debate until next week in hopes of generating more public outcry on the issue.

Senate Switchboard phone number is (515) 281-3371