In Cedar Rapids protesters rally against Iowa bills targeting collective bargaining

CEDAR RAPIDS — Mark Smith puts his life on the line as a probation officer sometimes called to haul criminals to jail at all hours of the day or night.

It's a sacrifice the Cedar Rapids resident is willing to make for his profession, but a proposal for sweeping cuts to Iowa's collective bargaining law, which would impact Smith and colleagues at the Department of Corrections, doesn't sit well with him.

'Collective bargaining is our ability to sit down with management and ask for fair wages,' Smith said Thursday afternoon while holding a bullhorn in one hand and his 18-month-old bundled-up daughter in the other at a rally outside Cedar Rapids City Hall.

Indivisible Cedar Rapids, a grass roots progressive group in the vein of the Tea Party movement, organized the rally after Republican lawmakers introduced a bill on Tuesday proposing sweeping changes to the 43-year-old collective bargaining law, which governs negotiations for pay and benefits.

A crowd of some 75 people — teachers, blue collar workers, corrections officers and supporters — braved frigid temperatures in turning out for the rally. They waved signs that read, 'Stop the war on workers' and 'dismantling of collective bargaining is destruction of the middle class' as passers-by honked their horns.

'We want fair wages for fair work,' said Amy Adams, a teacher at Alburnett High School. 'We want a seat at the table… We don't want to be a state of a status quo education system.'

She was collecting signatures for a petition opposing proposed changes.

Another speaker, Nate Willems, a local lawyer, advised there's 'still time to act, but the time to act is now.'

'It's truly a slap in the face to people who work hard and spend their own money to educate our children,' said Kris Cameron, one of the organizers.

The bills, HSB 84 in the House and SF 213 in the Senate, affects teachers, correctional officers, snow plow drivers and other public sector employee represented by a union, she said.

'I don't think it's right to cheat public employees out of a chance for security in their work,' said Laura Jackson, 28, of Cedar Rapids, who came to show support. 'We all know someone who serves in one of these positions.'

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