Iowa Labor Hopes to Refocus, Expand Majorities in the Legislature

Iowa labor unions are looking to rebound from Gov. Chet Culver's veto of a collective bargaining bill by working to increase the Democratic majority in the legislature and educating voters on the importance of their agenda."We'd like to see Democrats pick up anywhere between five to seven seats in the House," said Marcia Nichols, political and legislative director for AFSCME Iowa Council 61. "We're going to help our friends increase the majority so we can do even more things and take on the tougher issues."

Ken Sager, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, said the 2008 legislative session ended on a sour note, but he hopes that be used as motivation in the future.

  "A lot of our members are very disappointed and angry that we were finally able to get a [collective bargaining] bill through the legislature and we couldn't get the governor's signature," he said. "We were very surprised, and we've heard from a number of legislative leaders who were just as stunned as we were. Now, we're trying to focus that anger in a productive way to help build the labor movement for the future."

In the federation's most recent newsletter, the veto was put in much starker terms.

"The 2008 Legislative Session will go down in Iowa labor history as the session when a Democratic governor turned his back on the unions that enthusiastically supported him and helped get him elected," the newsletter said. "When Gov. Culver vetoed the public sector collective bargaining bill, not only public workers, but all of labor was stunned by what they felt was an out-and-out betrayal."

The bill in question, House File 2645, would have allowed public employees to negotiate a wider range of issues, including work shifts, leaves of absence and early retirement.

Opponents said the bill would have resulted in tax increases because if public employers and employees can't reach an agreement on the broader array of topics, an arbitrator would make the final decision. Supporters said only 1 percent of negotiations actually end up with an arbitrator. They also said the proposal would have increased workplace safety and productivity and could have helped Iowa reduce its projected skilled worker shortage by boosting salaries.

In his January Condition of the State Address, Culver called on legislators to find a consensus and not be afraid to debate issues like collective bargaining for public employees. Near the end of the session, though, he threatened a veto during the negotiations of the bill, but most still believed he would eventually sign it since labor is one of the Iowa Democratic Party's biggest constituencies, both in numerically and financially. That hope turned out to be misplaced.

"I'm not sure what happened there," AFSCME'S Nichols said. "I've worked at the Capitol for 19 years, and communication is extremely important up there. Communication between the staff of a legislator and a governor is extremely important. I'm kind of thinking that somewhere something got lost in translation, because Chet Culver is a labor-friendly governor."

Nichols said that because Culver went to China just after he vetoed the bill, and massive flooding has overtaken everyone's agenda since his return, her organization has not had the opportunity to sit down with him and discuss his motivations for opposing the bill.

But the focus now turns to the fall, and one of the key things unions must do, Nichols said, is do a better job of educating the public on workers' issues.

"Our opponents do a better job of educating people to their side of the story, and that's because this union is established to help our workers, so that's how we spend our money," she said. "We don't have a lot of extra money. We don't have a bunch of corporations who hand us checks to go buy radio ads to talk about how great the collective bargaining bill is. But our enemies do. They have lots of money. They get to go on the radio and on TV and tell Iowans the sky is falling. So we can't match that kind of money."

Sager said his organization has narrowed its legislative focus to four issues: Fair Share, collective bargaining for public employees, prevailing wage and choice of doctor.

"Those continue to be our issues, and we will continue to work to get the legislature to take them seriously and get the laws passed that will benefit the working people of Iowa," he said.

As for the general election, Nichols said AFSCME is trying to reach out to legislators in rural counties, like Mahaska County, to educate the community about the workers' agenda.

"Hopefully, by concentrating on certain races, like incumbents that have been supportive of our issues, and reaching out to other districts to identify candidates who have been supportive of working family issues, we can increase the majority," she said.

Ideas like Fair Share, which Nichols calls Economic Justice at the Workplace, have a bad rap for many Iowans simply because they are more difficult to explain than a sound bite allows.

"Problem with labor issues is that they are extremely technical, which makes them easy issues to pick off," Nichols said.  "[Our opponents] can say `Oh my God, they're going to amend the Right to Work bill.' Our bill never amended the right to work law, but they were able to build a battle cry. All it said was that if you're working beside somebody who the union is bargaining the raises for and getting their insurance and getting other benefits and you're paying dues to support the entity who does that and they don't that isn't fair. I think when Iowans have it explained to them thoroughly, it becomes a no brainer."

Sager said labor will not stand idly by while its agenda is ignored.

"It's time politicians quit taking labor for granted," he said. "We will work hard to education legislators and the public, but we also will work to educate our members on where legislators stand on the issues."