A bill that would limit collective bargaining rights for public employees passed the Iowa House on Friday, but the measure looks dead on arrival in the Senate.
The Senate’s majority leader, Council Bluffs Democrat Mike Gronstal, said the bill goes too far.
“This is so far out of the mainstream. There is no way the subcommittee will bring it up. There is no way the (Labor and Business Relations) Committee will bring it up,” Gronstal said.
A Republican on that committee, Sen. Bill Anderson of Pierson, agreed that the bill looks doomed.
“A number of the members on the other side are former union members and maybe even current union members ... . I think the makeup of the committee is such that I would be surprised if it was brought up,” Anderson said.
Approved 58-38 on a party-line House vote, the bill would force state workers to pay at least $100 a month toward their health care and would not allow them to negotiate or vote on layoff procedures. That means managers could decide who would be let go instead of layoffs being done according to seniority.
“They are taking away some pretty big things, such as seniority and bargaining over health care insurance . . . leaving us crumbs to bargain with,” said Kasey Friedrichsen, 24, a state employee and union member from Denison.
Critics of the measure also said it could lead to senior workers being cut, since they usually make the most money.
Republicans who control the House said the bill is needed to help address a state budget shortfall of $500 million to $700 million, as well as restoring balance to a labor process that sometimes favors public employees over the ability of taxpayers to pay.
“I don’t dispute that public employes are valuable people. I don’t feel we are picking on them,” said Rep. Greg Forristall, R-Macedonia, who voted for the bill.
However, he said, “Taxes have steadily gone up and we are just trying to get a little balance in.”
Iowa is one of a number of states where lawmakers are taking action to curtail the power of public employee unions as they deal with budget problems. In Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Friday eliminating most collective bargaining rights for those public employees.
Pro-union demonstrators had flocked to the Iowa Statehouse this week as the House debated all day Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, while still facing dozens of amendments offered by Democrats, Republicans voted to cut off the debate.
Union members watching from the gallery joined Democratic lawmakers in chanting “shame on you” after the vote was taken.
Democrats called the bill a political attack on the public employee unions that traditionally support their party.
Gronstal called it “a really big cynical game by Republicans to get private sector workers fighting with public sector workers.”
Republicans described such talk as overheated.
Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, a switchman for Union Pacific, is a union member. He voted for the bill.
“I understand the benefits of having a union; I see it every day when I work on the railroad,” said Windschitl, an assistant majority leader in the House.
“I’m not saying unions are bad. I’m saying that when we are talking about the public sector here in Iowa, we are taking everybody (workers, managers and taxpayers) into account,” he said.
Other GOP lawmakers noted that the Iowa bill doesn’t go as far as Wisconsin’s new law in limiting bargaining rights.
“This is not going quite the way of Wisconsin,” Forristall said.
The Iowa bill would give arbitrators new options when state and union negotiators can’t agree.
Currently, state law requires an arbitrator to choose between the final offer from the state and the final offer from the union. The bill would allow an arbitrator to craft a compromise from those offers and to consider private-sector agreements when making a decision.
For example, if the state proposed having workers pay $100 a month toward their health insurance costs and a union proposed a $50 contribution, the arbitrator could consider what workers at private companies typically pay.
Anderson, whose Senate district includes the cities of Cherokee, Moville and part of Sioux City, called the bill a reasonable approach.
“I think most everybody in the real world . . . at least contributes something to their insurance, I don’t think that’s unreasonable,” he said. “For a family policy, $100 is a pretty darn good deal.”
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
