The State Police Officers Council (SPOC) has agreed that its 640 members will take five furlough days during the remaining 7 months of FY2010, a move that will create approximately $847,435 in savings.

The state would also suspend contributions to a deferred compensation retirement plan, according to the agreement. The governor’s office estimates this provision will create approximately $226,232 in savings.

The agreement mirrors one reached by the state and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 61 last week that saved 479 jobs.

By agreeing to these measures, SPOC members will be safe from layoffs during the current fiscal year, which ends July 30, 2010.

Next week , the SPOC Board will submit the agreement to union members for a full vote. An announcement on the outcome of the vote is expected close to the AFSCME vote on Nov. 25.

“I want to thank the leadership at SPOC for joining with us to protect essential public safety jobs,” Culver said in a statement. “This understanding will help to keep Iowans safe while meeting our obligation to balance the state budget.  I am very pleased by the agreement and I encourage the membership to vote yes on this measure.”

Last month, Culver ordered a 10 percent across-the-board cut to the state’s budget. Initial budget cut proposals called for more than 800 layoffs. Culver announced that unions representing employees from the Department of Public Safety and Department of Corrections would have to open up their contracts in order to avoid layoffs. Two of the three unions have now come to understandings with the state government, with the third, Iowa United Professionals (IUP), deciding to accept 55 layoffs.

IUP represents 3,000 members, including social workers and corrections counselors.

The 479 positions include front line correctional officers, parole probation officers and other support positions.

Culver called on AFSCME and two other unions that represent employees of the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety to reopen their contracts in an attempt to avoid deep job cuts. AFSCME Iowa Council 61 President Danny Homan said Monday the union did everything it could to save the jobs of its members.

The changes to the contract, which will be voted on by union members no later than Nov. 25, include:

1. Each of the approximately 20,000 state employees who are covered by the AFSCME Master Agreement will be required to take five mandatory unpaid days during the remaining 7 months of FY2010 which ends June 30, 2010. This provision will create approximately $22 million in savings, the governor’s office contends.
2. The deferred compensation program for state employees will undergo temporary changes to suspend the state’s contribution through June 30, 2010. The employees’ contribution to the deferred compensation program will remain as currently allowed under the AFSCME Master Agreement. This provision will create approximately $4 million in savings.
3. No AFSCME Iowa Council 61 executive branch state employee will be laid off between the date of approval and the end of the current fiscal year.
4. Non-union employees who are laid off will not be permitted to displace employees who are union members.

“I want to thank the leadership at AFSCME for joining with us to save these essential public service jobs,” Culver said in a statement. “This understanding will help preserve vital services for Iowans while meeting our obligation to balance the state budget.  This is a positive step forward and I encourage the membership to vote yes on this measure.”

Last month, Culver finalized 34 departmental budget cut plans, which will result in 180 layoffs and the elimination of 229 open positions.

There has been no mention of contract negotiations with the other two unions that represent state corrections and public safety departments employees: the State Police Officers Council, which represents about 650 sworn officers and game wardens, and the Iowa United Professions which represents 3,000 members, including social workers and corrections counselors.

Ed Failor Jr., president of Iowans for Tax Relief, said the privatization of Iowa’s prisons would result in many positive benefits, from making communities safer to minimizing inefficiencies. But the biggest benefit would be cost savings, he said.

“Iowa taxpayers would save tens of millions of dollars from the sale and operation of private prisons,” Failor said. “The current budget situation requires lawmakers to make real changes to state government, and selling the state prison system is part of the solution to moving Iowa forward.”

Failor points to Arizona, where lawmakers project privatizing prisons could save their state more than $100 million in the corrections budget, and calls on Iowa to consider a similar move.

“Today, there are over 9,000 inmates in Iowa prisons, and the average annual cost per prisoner is approximately $30,000,” Failor said. “Iowa taxpayers spend over $265 million on state prisons, and the average cost per prisoner increases each year.”

Privatizing state functions is an idea getting serious consideration around the country, as state’s grapple with an historic economic downturn that has decimated their budgets. In Iowa, Gov. Chet Culver recently announced a 10-percent cut to the state budget in order to overcome a more than $400 million deficit.

Not everyone is sold on the benefits of privatizing prisons.

A U.S. Department of Justice study found that the cost-savings promised by private prisons “have simply not materialized.”The study concluded that rather than the projected 20-percent savings, the average saving from privatization was only about 1 percent, and most of that was achieved through lower labor costs.

Opponents of privatization also express worry that the quest for higher profits will result in lower staff levels and training at private facilities and could lead to increases in incidences of violence and escapes.

A federal study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found Iowa ranked second-lowest nationally in per-capita spending on corrections. The state spent $121 per person, lower than every state but North Dakota, which spends $116 per person. The national average was $210.

In a statement last week, Rep. Jeff Kaufmann, R-Wilton, and Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said the $130,000 trip is “well intentioned” but ultimately a bad idea.

That criticism was echoed on Monday when Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 61, called on the school to cancel the trip.

School officials defended the trip to The Des Moines Register, saying the university’s hospital has scored poorly on patient satisfaction surveys and the trip aims to turn that around, saying it is important to “reinvest in the business.”

Homan said in light of Gov. Chet Culver’s recent decision to cut 10 percent from the state’s budget, and the fact that the decision will result in hundreds of layoffs, the timing of the trip is bad.

“Even more insulting is that this trip includes a free visit to Disney World, so that these attendees can enjoy a day at a theme park while others right now are sitting on pins and needles worrying about whether or not they will have a job as the holidays approach,” he said.

“Sure, state employee budgets will feel the pinch of a pay cut; but a salary reduction over the course of nine months is certainly less harmful than outright unemployment,” he said.

After Culver announced his plan to cut the budget earlier this month, Danny Homan, president of AFSCME Council 61, said the resulting layoffs would be devastating. The union, which represents 40,000 state and local government employees, already agreed to implement a pay freeze this year. Homan said the governor’s pledge to not raise taxes means painful, and possibly unnecessary, job losses.

Failor said a 5 percent pay reduction would save taxpayers approximately $140 million, “and should save 1,000 Iowa jobs.”

“State labor unions should agree with this suggestion; this plan would help keep Iowans working,” Failor said. “Instead of driving up wages, unions should focus on protecting those members who are at risk of losing their job this year.”

In a press release shortly after the budget cuts were announced, AFSCME contended that the state could also avoid deep cuts if it were to examine ways to close corporate tax loopholes and re-examine other practices that have not shown evidence that they are growing the Iowa economy.

Research conducted by the nonpartisan group Iowa Fiscal Partnership found tax credits to business have grown from $180 million to $421 million in just three years. The group also found more than $80 million in uncollected tax revenue from multi-state corporations due to tax loopholes.

Iowa should take the opportunity to turn the fiscal crisis it is currently facing into an opportunity to make lasting change, Failor said.

“An economic crisis such as this is the time to make major changes in the way state government operates,” he said. “Our state leaders should take this opportunity to make responsible changes, not increase the number of out of work Iowans.”

In recent years, national and international unions have played a significant role in Iowa elections.  In 2008, AFSCME International donated $346,000 to the political action committee of its Iowa local, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61. Among other big unions donors were the Service Employees International Union, which donated $125,000 to its local, and the Laborers’ International Union of Illinois, which contributed $200,000 to the Great Plains Laborers’ Council Iowa PAC.

That money helped Democratic candidates and county parties around the state, and Democrats expanded their majorities in both the House and Senate.  When I asked two politically influential labor officials whether more money would be on the way in 2010, they both declined to speculate, saying they do not yet know.

Marcia Nichols, political and legislative director for AFSCME Iowa Council 61, said it’s too early to tell what the national unions will do. She said she has not yet had conversation with leaders in Washington, D.C. , about 2010.

Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, agreed that it is too early to speculate about labor’s role in 2010.

“I wish I had a crystal ball and could answer that one,” said he said. “Clearly Iowa is a priority to us, but for national unions, I can’t answer for them.”

The dialogue with the national unions will continue as to what they want to do and how they want to focus resources, Sagar said.

“Those folks in Washington or Pittsburgh or Detroit will make up their minds,” he said. “Clearly they would like to keep majorities in Iowa, but I can’t tell you what their decision making process is all about.”

None of labor’s four priorities — choice of doctor, prevailing wage, open-scope bargaining and fair share — garnered the 51 votes needed in the Iowa House to pass, despite a 56-44 Democratic majority that organized labor helped build.

And looking ahead to 2010, Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy, D-Dubuque, told the Associated Press he is doubtful the labor bills will pass any time soon, saying next year’s legislative elections make the issues too complicated.

Despite these setbacks, Iowa labor leaders remain optimistic that their agenda could succeed in 2010.  It’s only a matter of time before they find the majority they need to pass their legislation, they say.

“I like to think that good legislation gets passed regardless of whether it is an election year or not,” said Marcia Nichols, political and legislative director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61. “If it’s good public policy, then it’s good public policy during an election year, too. I’m optimistic we will continue to move forward and get the votes we need to get legislation passed.”

Iowa hasn’t taken a hard look at its labor laws since the early 1970s, when public employees were first given the right to bargain, said Ken Sagar, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO. So it is understandable that labor unions need to educate the voters on why their issues are important.

“We need to explain the issues better and be more clear to ensure the public is educated on what we believe are fairness issues,” he said.

A majority of Iowans still opposes so-called ‘fair share’ legislation, which would allow unions to charge nonunion employees for services they receive from the union, according to a recent Des Moines Register Iowa Poll. But a slimmer margin opposes a ‘prevailing wage’ standard, which would set minimum pay and benefits for workers on government construction projects.  And a majority favors expanding collective bargaining rights for public sector employees, which is another piece of the labor agenda in Iowa.

“The more people learn about these issues the more they support them,” Nichols said.

Organized labor’s short-term focus is on educating legislators, Nichols said. But with elections just around the corner, labor will also pledge to do what it can to help those who already support its agenda.

“You dance with the one that brung you,” she said. “That applies to us and the people who help us out. Certainly we are going to work to get our friends re-elected.”

Sagar said the looming election in November 2010 shouldn’t make it more difficult for labor bills to pass earlier in the year. He thinks it could actually make it easier.

“The folks who support these issues are the labor activists who do the yard signs, do the door knocking, do the phone banking, provide rides to the polls,” he said. “These are the folks who really make a difference during elections. There are a lot of close elections in this state.”

Sagar pointed specifically at Democratic Rep. Dolores Mertz of Ottosen, who won re-election in 2008 by 42 votes.

“I think we have about 1,000 people in that district, so it’s not a highly unionized area of the state,” he said. “But when you win by 43 votes, they make a huge difference.”

It’s telling that Sagar used Mertz as an example. She was one of six Democrats who helped kill prevailing wage legislation and has been an outspoken critic of labor’s other priorities. During a March taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” Sagar got a lot of media attention for comments he made indicating that Democrats who did not support labor’s agenda could face primaries in 2010.

“I was actually surprised that people were shocked that we would say that,” he said. “We support those who support us and oppose those who oppose us. This isn’t breaking news. What organization doesn’t do that? Look at the Iowa Taxpayers Association, who took out sitting Republicans over tax issues. The Association of Business and Industry has an analysis process to figure out which candidates to support. Labor does this, too.”

There are many legislators in both parties who don’t seem willing to make the commitment to improve the lives of Iowa’s middle class, Sagar said.

“And that’s what the bills are about,” he said. “Improving the lives of working families.”

It’s still too early to tell, though, what the electoral strategy of organized labor will be in 2010, Sagar said.

Ultimately, as the discussion continues to take place and the public becomes more familiar with the issues legislators will have no choice but to pass them, Nichols said.

“You’re seeing changes in polling; you’re seeing the issues discussed in the media,” she said. “Because we haven’t talked about these issues for decades, people are hesitant. We need to do a better job of educating people.”

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61 has issued a response to Gov. Chet Culver’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2010, promising to work with the governor to find cost savings and staying on message when it comes to whom to blame for the current economic crisis.

The cordial statement, sent to reporters just minutes ago, seems to demonstrate a willingness to forgive and forget Culver’s controversial veto of a bill to expand public employee collective bargaining rights just last year.

Here’s the text:

America is in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, caused by the wrongheaded policies of the last eight years under the Bush administration. While Iowa is in better shape than most states, the national recession has reduced state revenues. On Feb. 28, Governor Culver released his proposed FY 2010 budget, and he has proposed cuts of $400 million dollars.

AFSCME Iowa Council 61 is now analyzing Governor Culver’s budget and plans to work with the administration and legislative leadership to try to soften the blow to state services. Now more than ever, in this crisis, Iowa working families depend on state’s social safety net, including education, health care, and workforce development programs. Our Local Union Presidents are asking our members to bring their ideas forward on how the state should save money. We believe that the experienced frontline workers know best how to do things better at a lower cost.

AFSCME Iowa Council 61 is working hard to support the economic recovery package in Congress that can potentially bring nearly $2 billion in federal aid to Iowa for health care, education, transportation and other services. Passage of this bill is critical.

“Our members are the ones who deliver the services that Iowa families depend on. Without AFSCME workers, there are no food stamps, unemployment checks, health care for the disabled, or plowed roadways. We want to work with the State of Iowa to keep as many frontline workers on the job for the people of Iowa as possible, and look for ways to save money,” said Danny Homan, the president of AFSCME Iowa Council 61.

Goldstein was not the only Iowan confused by a full-color flier that arrived in Iowa mailboxes yesterday from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

“I saw it, read it and my first thought was ‘Who sent this?’ I finally found the sender information on the back in small lettering,” he said. “I figured it was some group that was supporting [former North Carolina Sen. John] Edwards’ candidacy.”

Given the language of the flier, which pulled a quotation from Edwards in order to attack Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s health care plan, it is easy to see why recipients might be confused. AFSCME has endorsed and is campaigning on the behalf of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Goldstein said the negative politics of the past few weeks are one of the reasons he’s no longer a supporter of the Clinton campaign. He now supports Obama. In addition, Henry County Democrat Susan Klopfer had signed on to be a precinct captain for the Clinton campaign, but has since made a video outlining how negative politics pushed her to support Obama.

The Edwards campaign was quick to give voice to its disapproval: “There have been a lot of misleading tactics and tricks in the last few weeks, but we’ve just never seen anything like this before,” said Iowa State Director Jennifer O’Malley Dillon. “Either they are trying to trick people, or they’ve realized that on health care, John Edwards is the candidate who speaks honestly about what it really costs and what will be required to have truly universal coverage. … It’s fine to have an honest debate about policy, but Iowans deserve better than planted questions and campaign fliers (sic) designed to fool them.”

The official statement from the Edwards campaign, which continues to receive calls from both supporters and undecided caucus-goers upset with the mail piece, was mild in comparison with what some Edwards supporters had to say.

“It really angered me,” said Sam Osborne of West Branch. “It was really stealth politics. I know that in love and war, and politics almost everything is okay, but I was really offended.”

Osborne questioned why an organization that has publicly committed to one candidate wouldn’t use the words of that candidate on their mail materials.

“It just doesn’t make any sense, does it?” he asked. “They are backing Hillary Clinton. Why aren’t they quoting her instead of having John Edwards’ words in the middle of this thing? … If the next one comes out from AFSCME and talks about a hair cut and somebody living in a large house, and they quote Barack Obama and what he has to say about it — well, then I’m really going to be suspicious.”

The mailing has also created a rift within the ranks of AFSCME. Some Illinois and Iowa members, angry over the mailing and what they view as an attack that goes against AFSCME’s own statements, spent a portion of their afternoon on a conference call on behalf of the Obama campaign.

“I’m aware — have seen and was dismayed to see it — the direct mail piece that international union sent out under an independent expenditure that gives one the impression that AFSCME supports the mandates that are in Sen. Clinton’s plan,” said Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois (a local that has endorsed Obama). “Let me be clear: the opposite is true. We’ve always opposed individual mandates.”

The angry members pointed to an AFSCME national health care resolution passed earlier this year that declared individual mandates are “incompatible” with the principles and interests of the membership. It is the lack of a mandate that the questionable flier refers to as a “band-aid solution.” In addition, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, a long-time friend and supporter of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, denounced mandates during Congressional testimony last spring, stating they would force families to pay more for their policies.

“[The mailing sent by international] is a desperate attempt to attack [Obama] and on unfounded reasons,” said Carter Woodruff, former Iowa secretary-treasurer of Iowa AFSCME and a member of Local 3861. “The problem that I think most of the members here in Iowa will have with this mailing is that it assumes that people are supporting Hillary Rodham Clinton because our union endorsed her. Our union has an interesting demographic — quite a few Republicans, Independents and Democrats. I think the people in Iowa … are supporting Barack Obama at this point.”

After being asked directly if he thought the mailing was hypocritical, Woodruff agreed that it was “definitely hypocritical, absolutely.” He added that those responsible for the ad should be ashamed they “stooped so low.”

AFSCME spent $34,000 on the direct mail piece. Inquiries to McEntee’s office were not answered.

In total, AFSCME represents more than 1.4 million workers. The union has said it has plans to activate a 40,000-member voluntary force and launch a get-out-the-vote effort in Iowa, where it represents 30,000 workers.

The union raised eyebrows early in 2004 when it withdrew its endorsement from former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. The group, along with the Service Employees International Union, had endorsed Dean in November 2003 when he was the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in terms of both national polls and fund raising. The endorsement was withdrawn when Dean failed to produce results in early states including Iowa and New Hampshire.

“Clinton has the leadership, ideas and strength to lead America in a new direction and her commitment to working families is unparalleled,” said Danny Homan, AFSCME Iowa Council 61 president. “We face serious challenges at home and abroad, and she is the best candidate to restore middle class economic progress, support our soldiers and veterans, and improve the quality of life for all Americans.