'Everything is on the table' for collective bargaining debate in Iowa

Big changes to state and local government workers' benefits, disciplinary procedures and the way they negotiate their employment contracts may be coming to Iowa.

Republican lawmakers, newly empowered and emboldened after last November's election, are making clear they intend to rewrite the state’s collective bargaining law, sparking what could be one of the fiercest battles of the legislative session that opens next Monday.

“Everything is on the table, I’ll put it that way,” said state Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig, and the incoming chairman of the Senate Labor Committee. “We’re looking at everything from repeal all the way back to a few minor tweaks.”

Republicans won a majority in the state Senate in 2016 and now control both legislative chambers and the governor's office. In their view, the state’s current collective bargaining law – known colloquially as Chapter 20, for its place in the Iowa Code – provides overly generous benefits to public-sector workers and undermines governments’ control over spending.

“The big thing we’re looking for is to give taxpayers a place at the table,” said state Rep. Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia. “That means they have some say in how the money is spent, and that there are safeguards to see that taxes aren’t increased willy-nilly every time there’s a demand from collective bargaining.”

Disputing that view and looking to preserve the current law are Democrats and public-employee labor unions, who criticize GOP efforts as unnecessary, harmful to workers and communities and politically motivated.

“When (Republicans) were in the minority, they thought the law was great. Now that they’re in majority, they think the law needs to be changed,” AFSCME Council 61 President Danny Homan said. “Everything about this is about politics. Everything about this is about weakening unions’ ability to bargain over wages, terms and conditions.”

Homan’s organization is the largest public-sector union in the state, representing some 40,000 workers on road crews, in county courthouses, at state institutions and elsewhere.

While it’s not clear yet what specific changes the Republican Legislature will pursue, key lawmakers and interest groups have identified a handful of areas of interest. Among them:

Health care benefits

Currently, state law requires public employers and their employees to negotiate health insurance benefits within a collective bargaining agreement – a situation that for decades has afforded workers generous insurance plans at relatively low cost.

Republican lawmakers argue such plans are out of step with those available to private-sector employees and represent a huge cost to state and local governments. Republican Gov. Terry Branstad has floated the idea of removing health insurance from collective bargaining and establishing a single contract for all public employees across the state.

"If we treated health insurance like we do retirement — which has never been covered by collective bargaining, and which has one uniform program that is available for counties, cities, school districts and the state — we think that could save significant money," Branstad said. "It would give a lot more flexibility to local governments."

Arbitration

Several GOP lawmakers called for reforming the arbitration process by which labor contracts are settled when employers and workers can’t agree. Under the current system, each side makes a final offer and an independent arbitrator chooses one.

This is seen as particularly problematic for school districts, which may be forced to raise property taxes to pay for the salary or benefit increases required in a contract approved by an arbitrator. Indeed, changing the law on arbitration is a priority for the Iowa Association of School Boards.

“We can’t continue to give 3 percent increases when we’re only getting a 2 percent increase in school funding from the state,” association Executive Director Lisa Bartusek said.

Grievances

Lawmakers also say they’d like to streamline the grievance process by which employers and workers settle issues with job performance.

State Rep. Dave Deyoe, R-Nevada and the incoming chairman of the House Labor Committee, said the current process is “overly cumbersome.”

“Department heads spend too much time with grievances,” he said. “It’s too difficult for the state of Iowa or school districts to fire an employee who in any other field would be dismissed.”

Unions push back at priorities

None of these issues, argues Iowa State Education Association President Tammy Wawro, are a real priority for Iowa voters – even those who sent Republicans to Des Moines with a legislative majority.

“There is not a peoples’ mandate for something like this,” Wawro said. “I’ve not heard taxpayers talking about the need to change collective bargaining in Iowa. Maybe that’s why they’re all over the place and don’t know what to do – because this is much more of an attack than something the voters asked for.”

The ISEA is the state’s largest teachers union, and a major force in both the state’s Democratic Party and labor community.

The experience in Wisconsin – where Gov. Scott Walker and a Republican legislative majority abolished public workers’ right to bargain collectively in 2011 – looms over any talk of altering such laws here. That move sparked protests drawing tens of thousands of people and an occupation of the state Capitol in Madison. Democratic state senators fled to Illinois in an attempt to prevent a vote on the measure, and activists later attempted to throw Walker and several lawmakers out of office.

This year in Iowa, though, both sides say they’re not interested in bringing such upheaval to Des Moines. Even as Republican leaders say all changes to Chapter 20 are “on the table,” several expressed a personal preference to stop short of fully repealing bargaining rights. And key labor leaders concede massive public demonstrations are unlikely.

But even so, the battle is likely to be fierce.

“We will do everything in our power to protect the rights of workers to have a say in their job,” said state Rep. Bruce Hunter, D-Des Moines. “That is a fundamental right that we believe in and we will do everything in our power to protect those rights.”

— William Petroski contributed to this story.