Des Moines, IA

Some 40 UE members from Iowa locals and sub-locals participated in the union’s annual political action day in Des Moines on January 28. They lobbied state legislators on six areas of concern to the union, and within the following few days won a victory on one of those issues. Both houses of the legislature approved a bill providing early retirement incentives for state workers, and on February 10, Governor Chet Culver signed it into law.

Members met in the morning at Local 893’s office to hear reports and prepare for direct lobbying of their legislators. Western Region President Carl Rosen reported on the union’s work around the region. International Representative Greg Cross reviewed the current status of state bills of interest to UE members. The union’s state lobbyist Jim Obradovich offered further details on this legislation. Chris Townsend, UE’s political action director, gave a summary of the situation on Washington and his own take on the union’s struggles in Iowa.

Members met with at least 35 state senators and representatives. They put special emphasis on restoring the jobs of corrections counselors, several of whom were laid off in January due to the state’s budget crisis. A picket line of UE members on January 9 at Anamosa State Penitentiary drew media attention to the issue. UE members say the layoffs jeopardize public safety because they mean more inmates will be released without having received rehabilitative treatment. Several correction counselors participated in the political action day.

The union’s agenda for the state legislature:

• Fully Fund All Departments. With the recession deepening, Iowa’s children and families need help and it’s no time to shortchange those in need.  

• Clean Up Iowa’s Tax Code. UE has been telling legislators for years that the banquet of  business tax cuts and giveaways served to the corporations have ravaged the revenue side of the budget. The state’s current budget crisis shows that the union was right.  Gov. Culver’s proposal to clean up the tax credits is, in the view of Iowa UE locals, a good start. But lawmakers must go further to make the rich and big business bear their share of the costs of state government.

• Early Retirement Proposal for State Workers, to address the budget shortfall without layoffs.

• Defend Education. Iowa’s universities, local school districts and community colleges can’t withstand further cuts in funding.  Loss of instructional personnel threatens crowded classes and reduced course offerings. Rising tuition and cuts in student loans place a heavier burden on Iowa families, just when they most need educational opportunities.

• Improve Worker Rights. “Fair Share” legislation would allow public-sector unions to negotiate contract provisions for non-members to share the cost of services the union provides to all employees. The union also calls for amending Chapter 20, the state bargaining law, which now excessively restricts the subjects of collective bargaining.

• Stop Privatization of public services, which has been a failure and benefited only the profiteers who take public money and public workers’ jobs.

In the wrap-up session at the capital building, State Rep. Nate Willems, a former UE member, addressed the delegation.

Local 893 President Becky Dawes thanked the members “who took time out of their day to be here and participate in one our most important events. This is the time when we inform our legislators of our concerns and needs in order to keep our jobs and put our fellow brothers and sisters back to work,” she said. “I feel that it was a major success in that the union office was full of members and we had more new faces than we ever have. This included members from almost every classification that we represent. Those who attended felt it was a positive experience and that they had good responses from their legislators. Our most important task was to lobby for additional funds to get our brothers and sisters from corrections back to work.”

Chris Townsend summed up the union’s message regarding the state budget crisis. “Lawmakers in the Iowa legislature know that decades of cutting taxes and doling out every imaginable kind of corporate welfare, tax credit and tax break has led to our current budget crisis. UE has come to this legislature year after year after year explaining this, and predicting that the day of reckoning would come. Well, it’s here. Front-line workers have been stretched to the limit and continue to do more than their share. Lawmakers need to do their share and close the loopholes in the tax code in order to raise the revenue needed to conduct the business of Iowa.”

“We had a very good turnout,” said Carl Rosen, “reflecting the ongoing fight over layoffs among the corrections counselers. This resulted in a large, energized group of UE members going to the capital to tell the legislature what is needed to get the state back on track.”