Home News Monday Afternoon News, February 20th

Monday Afternoon News, February 20th

Public Employees Union To Sue Over Collective Bargaining Law

(Des Moines) — An attorney for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union filed a lawsuit early this (Monday) morning, challenging the state’s new collective bargaining law for public sector
employees. Danny Homan (HOH-man) is president of AFSCME (AFFS-mee) Council 61, the union that represents 40-thousand public workers in Iowa.

A guard at the state prison in Clarinda, an Iowa State University policeman, a D-O-T motor vehicle enforcement officer and a University of Northern Iowa employee have joined the lawsuit. Homan says the only thing those four employees may bargain over now are their base wages, while people who do similar work — like police officers — were exempted from the new law, so they can discuss 17 subjects as they negotiate their contracts.

Homan’s union is currently in talks with the Branstad Administration over a two- year contract that would start July 1st. Last Friday, Branstad’s management team
submitted a final offer covering just one thing: base wages.

The new law PERMITS negotiations over things like seniority or how layoffs may be handled, but ONLY if BOTH the union and management agree to include those items.
All those workplace issues that have included in state worker contracts for decades been deleted from Branstad’s final offer.

The union is seeking a court order that would temporarily stop implementation of
the law, until a final court decision is made on the case. Homan suggests other
lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the law will be filed by other groups.
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