Labor supporters speak out

Teachers, prison guards, firefighters, union bosses and hundreds of other supporters of organized labor met Monday at the Statehouse to cajole, plead and demand that Republican lawmakers back off their plans to change the way collective bargaining is handled in the state.

Union members arrived by bus and personal vehicle Monday afternoon, first for an hourlong rally in the Capitol rotunda that included pro-labor chants and cheers and anti-Republican jeers.

Later, several hundred filled the House chamber galleries and two overflow rooms in other sections of the building for a two-hour public hearing on the bill.

The 61 labor supporters who spoke out against the bill far outnumbered the five who supported it. Police estimated that the rally drew 700 people overall.

“Collective bargaining is not a dirty word; it has worked well in our state,” said Bill Melville, a police sergeant from Sioux City and president of the Iowa Peace Officers Association. He said he knew of no sworn officer “who took up their calling to get rich.”

Union salaries, union busting, corporate greed, tax breaks for businesses, health insurance and even the motto of the state flag - “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain” - were themes that were repeated in many of the speeches, save for those made by the few who spoke against the bill.

“These are modest reforms,” said Mike Ralston, president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. “Iowa's public bargaining law has generally served Iowa well, (but) this model is not sustainable and must be reformed.”

Some parts of the bill that the speakers seemed particularly upset about were the provision that removes health care as a subject of negotiations; the provision that allows arbitrators to look at public and private salaries when determining wages and benefits in union negotiations; and the “free agency” provision, which allows people to negotiate their own wages outside of the union, even if they work in union shops.

Several of the speakers said union members were being unfairly targeted as the cause of the state's financial constraints.

“The situation we're in was caused by the bankers, was caused by Wall Street, was caused by the corporations that send jobs overseas,” said Bill Gerhard, president of the Iowa State Building & Construction Trades Council.

Others said the financial constraints are purely a fiction of lawmakers who would rather give money to corporations than laborers.

“Attacking working families is not the solution,” said Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61. The legislation, he said, “is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.”

Republicans also were singled out for running on platforms of job creation and getting tough on spending, but not delivering.

“Who they getting tough with?” said Mark Cooper, a union member with the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor. “Right now they're getting tough with 4-year-olds by cutting preschool. They're getting tough with kids, the elderly and workers. Get serious.”

The bill is expected to be debated and passed out of the House this week and move on to the Senate - where it's unlikely to make much headway with the Democratic majority.

-By Mike Wiser