Union truckers circle Iowa Capitol in protest of proposed labor legislation

DES MOINES — Truck and car horns blared as they drove laps Wednesday around the Iowa Capitol complex as union members and advocates rallied in opposition to a proposal that would impact Iowa public workers’ collective bargaining rights.

Two semis emblazoned with graphics for the Teamsters union were a part of the caravan of at least two dozen vehicles that circled the complex for roughly an hour, and an Iowa Teamsters leader addressed reporters on the Capitol steps.

The proposed legislation, Senate File 2374, would decertify a public worker collective bargaining unit if the public employer fails to submit to the state a list of union-eligible workers.

Labor advocates have called it a “union-busting” bill because it places bargaining units’ fate in the hands of the employer. Union members compare the proposal with a 2017 law that stripped Iowa public workers of most of their collective bargaining rights.

“When things aren’t broke, don’t fix it,” Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 238 in Iowa, said during his remarks to reporters. “The public sector bargaining law wasn’t broken in 2017, and they broke it. And now they want to break it some more. Well guess what: we’ve had enough.”

The Teamsters union has six local chapters in Iowa, Case said, representing roughly 12,000 members in law enforcement, freight, warehouses, county road crews, public works and school bus drivers.

Shortly after the new legislation was introduced, Case recorded a video in which he said Teamsters unions may engage in “rolling” strikes. During Wednesday’s events at the Iowa Capitol, Case said Teamsters members also are considering other options.

Case claimed that some Teamsters members across the state have been working while technically off-duty, and as an example said some public workers are answering work calls even though they are off the clock and not on-call. Case said if state lawmakers pass the latest legislation on collective bargaining, unions will tell those public workers, for example, to stop taking those off-duty calls.

“Our members are not obligated to go above and beyond the call of duty while they’re under attack” from lawmakers, Case said. “And I’m telling you right now, the next time that there’s a union-busting bill signed into law, people across the state will start feeling the effects of service.”

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The bill was introduced by Sen. Adrian Dickey, a Republican who is president of a trucking company, Dickey Transport, in Packwood.

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Dickey and Sen. Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig who ran the bill through the first steps of the legislative process, have said it is needed because many public bargaining units are not submitting lists of union-eligible workers and thus not holding annual recertification elections, both of which are required by the 2017 law.

From 2020 through 2022, the state did not receive information on union-eligible employees in more than 40 percent of instances in which a union was required to be recertified by a vote of its eligible workers, according to the Public Employment Relations Board, the state board that manages public employer-worker relations.

That means in 40 percent of instances in which a union was required to be recertified, no election was conducted, according to the board.

Sen. Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines and a lawyer, said that typically happens when the public employer is certain a bargaining unit would recertify, has a good working relationship with the unit and its workers, and thus does not feel compelled to force the election.

Dickey last year also led the effort on legislation that limited damages in lawsuits related to crashes involving commercial truck drivers. Dickey said that bill also shifted liability in such crashes from commercial truck drivers to their employer.

“It’s disappointing I get no gratitude for providing real help to the Teamsters and instead I’m attacked for simply proposing public employers and unions follow the law,” Dickey said in a statement emailed by Senate Republican caucus staff.

SF 2374 “is nothing more than a technical cleanup to legislation passed in 2017,” Dickey said in his statement. “Last year, 41 percent of Iowa public sector workers that had union representation did not have a voice due to a loophole in the legislation passed in 2017. If the public sector employer and the union are following the law, nothing will change for them.”

The legislation has cleared the Iowa Senate’s Workforce Committee, which Dickey chairs. It is eligible for debate by the full Iowa Senate. It must also be approved by the Iowa House and signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds before it would become law.

Rep. Dave Deyoe, a Republican from Nevada who chairs the House’s Labor and Workforce Committee, said lawmakers have been aware of the lack of recertification elections by bargaining units for years, and that it has been a concern for Republicans who passed the 2017 law. Deyoe said it will be up to Republican House leaders whether to take up the bill if it is passed out of the Senate.

Case said Teamsters members plan to continue their opposition to the legislation, including by conducting similar caravans and news conferences in Dickey’s district in Southeast Iowa.

“We’re not taking it anymore,” Case said. “This is the beginning of an escalation, and it either stops or it continues to escalate. But we’re not going to do it laying down. We’re standing up. We’re fighting back. We’re united. And this is just the beginning.”

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Tom Barton of The Gazette’s Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

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