AFSCME seeks wage increase in proposal

The state's largest employees' union Friday requested an increase in base wages for each of the next two fiscal years, but proposed no other changes in a new two-year contract that would take effect next July 1.

Leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 61 submitted an initial contract proposal that called for a 2 percent across-the-board increase in base wages on July 1, 2011, and a 1 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2012, in the pact's first year. They also requested a 2 percent increase on July 1, 2012, and a 1 percent on Jan. 1, 2013, in the second year of the agreement.

“This is a proposal that my bargaining committee voted to give to the state of Iowa and it acknowledges the situation that this state is in. It's a reasonable proposal,” said AFSCME Council 61 President Danny Homan in an interview. “This is something that I hope that we can come to a voluntary agreement on. That's our proposal and that's all I have to say about it.”

Jim Hanks, a Des Moines attorney contracted by the state Department of Administrative Services to be the state's lead negotiator, called the AFSCME proposal “unprecedented.”

“Certainly in the history of bargaining between the state and AFSCME, there's no precedent for anything like this -- to receive a single proposal only, when all of the contract is open, and for that one change to be with regard to wages,” Hanks said. “I bargain 30 to 40 contracts a year, and I've bargained well over 500 contracts, this is pretty rare.”

The state is scheduled to present its initial counter offer to AFSCME officials on Nov. 19. After that, the two sides go into closed negotiations until a voluntary agreement is reached or they submit the matter to binding arbitration if the talks reach an impasse.

Initial proposals by AFSCME, which represents up to 22,000 covered employees, and the State Police Officers Council came just days after Republican challenger Terry Branstad defeated Democratic Gov. Chet Culver in Tuesday's general election. During the campaign, Branstad said he was interested in revamping employee health insurance benefits and “step” wage increases for employees not at the top of their pay scales as part of his goal of reducing state government by 15 percent over five years.

Branstad is slated to be sworn-in for a fifth term – he previously served as governor from 1983 to 1999 – on Jan. 14.

David Roederer, who is leading Branstad's transition team, said Friday there has been a brief discussion about collective bargaining with Culver officials but more talks are expected. He said Branstad officials previously handled contract talks with state employee unions “internally” rather than contracting with an outside negotiator. Branstad team members were not aware that state unions had made initial contract proposals this week.

Hanks said it was “certainly legally possible” for contract talks with AFSCME to be completed before Jan. 14, but added “I'm not saying what will happen, I have no idea what will happen.”

Culver spokesman James Flansburg said “We're carefully considering the offer by AFSCME and we're going to be consistent with Iowa law.”

While AFSCME officials limited their proposed changes to their proposed wage increase, SPOC officials requested a number of contract changes in the initial proposal they submitted on Thursday, Hanks said.

State Police Officers Council negotiators made no specific wage increase request, indicating they planned to seek a “fair and equitable, yet-to-be-determined increase.” The proposal sought to raise “step” wage increases from 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent, requested the state pick up a larger share of health and dental insurance premiums and provide coverage for vision, increase pay for shift differential hours worked by 4 percent, increase the number of yearly paid holidays from 11 to 13, as well as changes to the sick leave and deferred compensation provisions, Hanks said.

Under Iowa law, if the two sides fail to reach a voluntary agreement by early next year, the negotiations go to binding arbitration to reach a settlement.