Leaders of teachers’ union, taxpayers clash on collective bargaining changes

DES MOINES - The head of the state's teachers' union and a government efficiency advocate clashed on how and whether sweeping changes to Iowa's public employee collective bargaining law will benefit taxpayers and public services.

The changes in House File 291, which was approved by the Legislature Thursday and signed into law by Gov. Terry Branstad Friday, won't lower property tax bill immediately, but will have a 'very beneficial effect in containing the growth and spending by governments,” Gretchen Tegeler, president of the Taxpayers Association of Central Iowa.

'This is a containment strategy over the long-term,” Tegeler said Friday during taping of Iowa Press, which can be seen on Iowa Public Television at 7:30 p.m.tonight.

Iowa State Education Association President Tammy Wawro agrees that it will hold down spending - personal spending by public employees who don't have confidence that they will continue to have the jobs and benefits they now enjoy.

She doesn't think stripping public employees of most of the bargaining rights they have enjoyed for the past four decades will save local governments or taxpayers any money.

'I'm not sure what in this bill gives taxpayers that,” she said about the potential savings Tegeler predicted. A fiscal analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency concluded that 'Sufficient information is not available to determine the total fiscal impact.”

'It would seem to me the fiscal note on here says it is inconclusive,” Wawro said. 'So I'm not sure where we would see that.”

What Wawro does see in the bill, passed largely along party lines in the GOP-controlled House and Senate, is an 'actual disrespect for the teaching profession” that will make teacher reconsider whether they want to stay in their jobs and discourage people from entering the profession.

Wawro believes the bill is an attempt by Republicans to bust public employee union and pointed to the Republican Party of Iowa Platform that calls for the elimination of those unions.

'But I'm not going to let that happen,” she said. 'We have seen actually membership growth since the elections after November and just yesterday 10 more members joined in a local in Eastern Iowa. Remember, this bargaining bill doesn't just hurt union members, it hurts everybody that is covered under this bill. So people are starting to realize what they have gotten when the union brings everybody up, everyone does better. And this situation is bringing everybody down as well.”

Although she's a Republican, Tegeler said she's not 'terribly active” in the party and didn't know the platform called for eliminating public employee unions.

However, she has 'reservations” about public sector unions. Even President Franklin Roosevelt, 'who was our biggest labor advocate of all time,” didn't think they were appropriate, Tegeler said.

Iowa Press also can be seen at 8:30 a.m. on IPTV World and at noon Sunday on IPTV, and is available online at www.IPTV.org.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com