On Monday night members of UE Local 896/COGS, which represents graduate employees at the University of Iowa, discussed and approved plans for their recertification campaign this fall. They made plans for a grassroots campaign to reach out to the 2,000 graduate employees on campus and recruit election volunteers in every department.
Anti-union legislation passed by the state legislature in 2017 requires public employee unions across Iowa to win recertification elections every time they bargain a new contract. In order to remain certified, the union must receive an absolute majority of the entire bargaining unit, not just a majority of those voting — election rules under which very few of the politicians who passed this law would be able to remain in office.
93 percent of Iowa’s public employee unions that had to be recertified last year were successful (including six units represented by UE), with 88 percent participation rates from all bargaining unit workers, union members and non-members alike.