AFSCME members approve new contract with state of Iowa

Officials with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61 announced late Wednesday that the 2011-2013 agreement that is slated to take effect next July 1 was ratified by 98.2 percent of the union's rank-and-file members in voting that took place between Dec. 16 and Wednesday.

With unprecedented swiftness, the collective bargaining process between state and AFSCME negotiators was wrapped up in two weeks with Gov. Chet Culver accepting the union's initial offer. The only change from the current labor pact for the 22,000 AFSCME-covered state workers is a series of across-the-board salary increases – a 2 percent raise effective July 1, 2011, a 1 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2012, another 2 percent raise on July 1, 2012, and a 1 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2013. Employees eligible for “step” increases would get an automatic 4.5 percent grade increase as part of the new pact.

“I want to thank all AFSCME membership covered by the state master agreement for their overwhelming response in turning out for this ratification vote. Considering the pay freezes, unpaid days, and cuts they have gone through for several years now, they are well deserving of these reasonable across the board salary increases. I believe that the actions that the members of this Union have agreed to in the past two years have helped Iowa to the budget surplus that the state now has,” Danny Homan, AFSCME Iowa Council 61 president said in a statement.

“The members of AFSCME Iowa Council 61 would also like to thank Gov. Chet Culver for accepting our reasonable proposal,” Homan added. “We now look forward to working with Iowa's decision-makers to improve the lives of all of Iowa's working families and to make sure the work of the state gets done.”

Governor-elect Terry Branstad, who will be sworn in for a fifth term on Jan. 14 after defeating in last month's election, has said repeatedly that he “deeply disapproves” of the settlements reached with the state employee bargaining. Members of the State Police Officers Council and Iowa United Professionals unions also have negotiated similar agreements that call for the same across-the-board pay increases over the next two fiscal years.

Branstad contends the taxpayers' interests were not protected in the collective bargaining process and the pay increases are not sustainable given the financial challenges facing state government. Branstad, who has set a goal of reducing the size and scope of state government by 15 percent over five years, has said the state should follow the example of President Obama and reopen contract talks with an eye on freezing state employee wages and changing some benefit and compensation provisions.

Jim Hanks, a Des Moines attorney under contract as the state's lead negotiator for collective bargaining, said the wage increases the state employee unions proposed were comparable to contracts being approved by other public-sector entities in Iowa and were reasonable given the sacrifices that state workers agreed to make when a recession-driven dive in state tax collections prompted Culver to slash state spending by 10 percent across the board in October 2009. The decision by some unionized state workers to accept five unpaid furlough days and take a $75 decrease in their deferred compensation helped the state weather a fiscal crisis with a relatively small number of layoffs while maintaining vital services to Iowans.

The Legislative Services Agency estimated the cost of extending the proposed union settlements to all state employees, contract and noncontract, would be about $103.5 million. However, Culver administration officials noted that the Legislature in recent years has opted not to apply pay raises negotiated in collective bargaining to noncontract workers. The estimated cost of the new two-year agreement with AFSCME would total $34.4 million in fiscal 2012 and nearly $36 million the following year.

Projected state cost of new two-year contract with AFSCME Iowa Council 61

State General Fund Fiscal 2012 Fiscal 2013

“Step” pay increases $ 9,137,393 $ 8,664,517

Across-the-board pay hikes $15,724,602 $16,249,897

Benefits $ 9,545,955 $11,060,894

Total $34,407,950 $35,975,307

Source: Iowa Department of Management