FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 2/13/2017 Contact: Jim Throgmorton, Mayor
Phone: 319-621-9391
Statement from Iowa City Mayor Jim Throgmorton on proposed state collective bargaining changes
One of Iowa City’s legislative priorities this year is "Protection of
public sector employee collective bargaining rights." Our City
Council and staff knew the Republican majorities in the House and Senate would
make some changes to the basic law governing collective bargaining (Chapter 20),
but we (or at least I) did not anticipate how extensively and quickly they
would eviscerate it.
Last Tuesday, Republican legislators
introduced HSB 291 and SF 213. Both bills would strip workers of all
mandatory subjects of bargaining, except for wages. But even bargaining over
wages would be tightly constrained: wage increases awarded by arbitration would
be restricted to the cost of living, or 3%, whichever is less.
If the bills pass as expected,
public workers will lose grievance procedures, seniority rights, and the
right to bargain over healthcare, pension, sick pay, vacation pay, and working
conditions. Public labor unions will be required to re-certify their bargaining
units at the expiration of every contract, even though many entities only
bargain one-year agreements. Moreover, a majority of all members of the
bargaining unit would have to vote yes before the unit could become
re-certified.
The clear purpose of these bills is
to eliminate public sector unions.
This is
not just a dreadful idea, which will cause adverse effects to ripple
throughout the labor economy, but HSB 291 and SF 213 are being fast-tracked without
giving affected individuals and organizations any meaningful opportunity to
influence the content of the legislation. Moreover, another bill (HSB
92) would preempt the ability of cities and counties to improve wages and
working conditions in their areas.
Iowans should be profoundly dismayed that their state legislators would take
such damaging action so precipitously. Put simply, this violates basic
principles of democratic governance.
To be clear: Iowa City’s City Council does not object to thoughtful
amendment of Chapter 20.
But thoughtful amending is not what the House and Senate are doing.
Consequently, we strongly believe the proposed bills should be rejected. They
are harmful to our employees, to all workers in the state, and to the public at
large.
Hundreds of dedicated men and women work hard for the people of our city,
and we fully support them: our street maintenance crews, our garbage
collectors, our landfill operators, our parks and recreation staff, our rental
housing inspectors, and all of the other workers who have enabled Iowa City to
thrive. Our public safety staff are not significantly affected by the bills currently
being considered, but “divide and conquer” appears to be the strategy at play
this year. There is no reason to expect that our police officers and
firefighters won’t be affected in the future.
