IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

Last Wednesday, Governor Chet Culver said he "expected" to hear from
state unions by today on whether they would agree to re-negotiate
contracts to save jobs of state workers. This was his quote,
"Unfortunately, we do not have an endless amount of time in which to
reach an agreement and to have it ratified by each respective union. I
expect to know by Friday, November 6, whether we will move forward in
discussions with the unions or implement the layoff plans." Earlier
this week, Culver's spokesman said today was only a "goal". The office
did not say today whether the unions made the "goal". Apparently, the
governor has returned to the state. The office sent out a release late
this afternoon to say Culver would be in Spencer tonight for a
pheasant hunt.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

The Des Moines Register is already commending Governor Chet Culver for
putting a hold on the staff reductions for the Departments of
Corrections and Public Safety. Governor Culver has asked AFSCME
Council 61, the union that represents the largest share of state
workers, to reopen their contracts and agree to pay reductions in
order to prevent the loss of jobs in these two departments. Culver
made his demands known to AFSCME on Tuesday afternoon and has set a
November 6th deadline for the union to respond. While it is good for
Governor Culver look for ways to lessen the effect of his 10 percent
across-the-board cuts, given the length of time it will take to
renegotiate union contracts, it seems odd that the Governor said there
wasn't time to call the legislators back for a special session.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

I mentioned on Labor Day that I haven't heard much lately about Senator Tom Harkin's efforts to reach a compromise on the Employee Free Choice Act. The EFCA is one of the top legislative priorities for organized labor and needs 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster. Several Democrats who supported the bill in 2007, knowing that President Bush would veto it, either oppose the bill or have dodged the question this year. Harkin has been the lead Senate negotiator on EFCA and is replacing the late Senator Ted Kennedy as chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Speaking to the American Rights at Work group yesterday, Harkin said he had 60 votes lined up behind a compromise this summer.

Labels: Tom_Harkin, unions

The Iowa State Education Association PAC raised more money than any
other Iowa-focused political action committee during the first 6
months of 2009, bringing in $204,072, according to paperwork filed
with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. The Associated
General Contractors of Iowa PAC came in second, raising $187,851, and
the Credit Union PAC came in third with $100,933. As for cash on hand,
the Service Employees International Union Political Education and
Action Iowa Fund was out front with $252,511. However, the union
hasn't raised or spent any money in 2009.

Labels: unions

After my report earlier today about the outlook for organized labor going into 2010, one unanswered political question remains: After Democratic majorities failed to move key components of organized labor's agenda from 2007 to 2009, will national labor groups continue to direct resources to Iowa Democrats, or will they move on to other states where large investments seem more likely to pay dividends? In recent years, national and international unions have played a significant role in Iowa elections. In 2008, AFSCME International donated $346,000 to the political action committee of its Iowa local, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61.

Labels: unions

A year ago, it was well reported that Chet Culver and the labor unions
were at odds with each other. The major dust up back then occurred
when Culver vetoed one of the labor unions' top legislative
priorities: open-scope bargaining. Since then, it seems as if Governor
Culver and the labor unions have made up. The following is a list of
labor groups that contributed to Culver in 2008. Great Plains Laborers
District Council - $70,000.00; Iowa State UAW - $47,500.00... The
$227,900.00 that the labor unions donated to Culver makes up almost
22% of the total dollars his campaign committee took in for 2008.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

Many have deemed this week "labor week" in the Iowa House of
Representatives. Last night some 40 Iowans spoke out at a public
forum. Following the forum, the bill quickly passed out of the House
Labor Committee. The bill is expected to be debated on the floor of
the House on Friday if Democrats can find the 51 votes needed to pass
it. Democrat leaders in the House might have a hard time finding the
necessary votes to move forward with the bill. It is rumored that as
many as ten Democrats oppose the legislation. If that is indeed the
case, it will be another embarrassing loss for the labor unions who
have yet to see one of their legislative priorities be signed into
law.

Labels: health_care, state House, unions

... With the inability of Democrats to pass pro-union legislation in the Iowa House of Representatives, the practice of recruiting moderate candidates may be a thing of the past. On this past weekend's Iowa Press, Ken Sagar the president of the Iowa Federation of Labor and Treasurer of the Iowa Democratic Party sent a clear warning to the six house Democrats who voted against prevailing wage legislation late last month. When asked if there will be some primaries next year, Sagar said, "I think we're clearly going to look closely at those people who have supported us and we'll look closely at some of the others." ... In 2008, the Iowa Democratic Party spent $41,512.42 on behalf of Rep. McKinley Bailey's re-election effort. Sources say that the Democratic Party sunk another $100,000.00 into his race the final week before the election. Iowa Democrats also spent $232,781.28 in getting Rep. Larry Marek elected last fall. With Sagar's comments, along with the fact that his hands are firmly on the purse strings of the Iowa Democratic Party, pro-business Democrats like Bailey and Marek could be left out to dry if they face a tough opponent in 2010.

Labels: IDP, unions

I don't really know what to make of House Democrats filing two Labor
Union bills yesterday. One of the bills, HF 530 would allow union
workers to choose their own doctor if they get injured on the job. The
other is the most contentious bill they could file, HF 555. HF 555
requires non union members to pay union dues. Talk about un-American.
I think there is a good possibility that the Democrats move on the
choice of doctor legislation. Like prevailing wage, it's an issue that
they can spin as pro-worker pretty easily. ... I have a feeling that the
Fair Share bill is another distraction, just like the bicycle bill and
the Electoral College bill was over in the Senate.

Labels: state House, unions

The "prevailing wage" bill fiasco finally ended on Monday. ... As Iowa
Politics reported, McCarthy's vote-switch will allow the leadership to
bring this bill up later in the session, if they can find 51
supporters. The logical thing would be for one of the holdout
Democrats who represents a safe district to switch his or her vote,
but Geri Huser and Brian Quirk have made clear that they are not team
players and for whatever reason don't see the benefit to helping local
workers earn an extra dollar or two an hour.

Labels: state House, unions

If the defeat of the Prevailing Wage legislation wasn't enough,
Speaker of the House Pat Murphy drew more attention to the situation
by staging a sit in all weekend long in hopes to switch a no vote to a
yes vote and pass the legislation. There is just one problem with his
strategy; there is no way he comes out looking good. And while I'm
sure he would celebrate the 51st vote, the court of public opinion
would bemoan the fact that Murphy had to resort to strong arm tactics
and a rules loophole to get his way. Today I want to discuss the
fallout, and the winners and losers of what transpired at the Capitol
on Friday night and throughout the weekend.

Labels: Pat_Murphy, unions

The "prevailing wage" bill, one of organized labor's top legislative priorities, stalled in the Iowa House on Friday as Democrats were unable to find a 51st vote. ... This post is about why Democratic House leaders now face two unappealing outcomes: either they fail to pass a good bill supported by a key Democratic constituency, or they force one of their members into an embarrassing about-face that could affect the next election campaign. ... Earlier this week, Republican Chris Rants wrote on his blog that "Republicans were relying on 'the Sovereign Seven - the 'conservative pro-business' Democrats who were going to block' union backed legislation like prevailing wage. ... I'd never heard the term "Sovereign Seven" before, but I knew that several Democratic legislators were not going to be reliable votes for the majority. That's one reason I was so upset about the failure of Barack Obama's presidential campaign to run a truly coordinated get-out-the-vote effort last fall. During the summer the Obama campaign took over the "coordinated campaign" role from the Iowa Democratic Party and promised to work for candidates up and down the ticket. But staffers and volunteers in the unprecedented number of Obama field offices didn't even collect voter IDs for our state House and Senate candidates. Our legislative candidates weren't usually mentioned in scripts for canvassers and rarely had their fliers included in lit drops.

Labels: Legislature, unions

Since Krusty has the status of the legislation and the Republican amendments, I thought I'd jump head first into a quick diatribe of what's wrong with this legislature. This legislature is nuts. Have any of you actually read the prevailing wage bill? I did. It is the height of social engineering. Obviously those in charge in the state capitol don't believe in free market capitalism. In 2004 could you have ever imagined in 5 years our state and national governments would go socialist... err... umm... communist?

Labels: Legislature, unions

... readers who visited "The Morning Roost" last Wednesday took note of my final topic which was aptly titled, "The Paulsen RopeADope." Included in this post is a You-Tube video that defines the brilliant boxing career of Muhammad Ali. What Ali did was, "defy the expected conventions" of his sport. ... Word from legislators this past week made it clear to me that Minority Leader Paulsen was immersed in his preparations for Prevailing Wage debate and amendments. Kraig put his time, energy and preparation into a set of carefully crafted amendments and now that "this round" of Prevailing Wage is finished, it appears one of those amendments emerged to become the crushing blow to big labor in Iowa. The short version, one ammendment cost one vote... enter McKinley Bailey. Big Labor is now hurt, not necessarily down for the count, in fact, I would characterize them as stunned, hurt and now running around the ring, flailing away with wild punches in every direction. Certain legislators are now targeted by their own caucus and big labor... a classic replay from movies I'm sure you can name!

Labels: unions

Yesterday the Iowa House took up House File 333, which will enact a
prevailing wage in Iowa. The "prevailing wage" is an administrative
wage, set by government officials, based on union wage rates where the
work would be performed. They are, in effect, required by law to spend
more money than necessary. "We're over one-third of the way through
the legislative session and Democrats have yet to move a bill that
puts one Iowan back to work and this prevailing wage bill is nothing
new," said House Republican Leader Kraig Paulsen (R-Hiawatha).

Labels: state House, unions

Representative Lance Horbach (R HD 40) raised another very well made
objection to the Prevailing Wage bill. Rep. Horbach's interview in
today's DMR webpage is must reading for those Republicans who oppose
the union payoff and for anyone else (which means 90% of Iowa's
employees) who isn't getting the big union payoff from the
Culver/Murphy/Gronstal/McCarthy crew. For those of you who don't know,
the Prevailing Wage bill requires all public entities to pay the
prevailing union wages for all construction projects in Iowa.

Labels: unions

Big Labor is going to be the focus this week in the State Legislature.
While we celebrated the defeat of Fair Share and the expansion
collective bargaining agreement is years past, they keep coming back,
and they will continue to do so until their wish list is enacted. This
year the game plan is to spread the field. So instead of focusing on
what they really want, they instead are advancing four separate pieces
of legislation; Fair Share, Prevailing Wage, Choice of Doctor, and
expanding Iowa's collective bargaining law. With this approach they
will get some of this legislation passed. The question is how much and
which ones. If I was a betting man, I think their main objective is
passing some version of Fair Share.

Labels: unions

So much to say, so little time. It's Baaaa-aaaack: Just when you
thought that the Fair Share bill was dead and buried after Chester's
veto last year, it has reared its ugly head yet again. The Register is
reporting that various union leaders are pushing the governor to
support a plan that is described as a "major expansion" of the bill
that was originally proposed two years ago. The bill would mandate
that certain non-union employees who benefit from union agreements be
required to pay union fees, even if they want nothing to do with the
unions themselves. Though Chester previously vetoed this bill, it
seems much more likely that he will support it this time around. This
time, the bill was drafted by the governor's office, but has not yet
been introduced in the legislature.

Labels: fair share, unions

I keep hearing chatter about a possible primary challenge to Governor
Chet Culver in 2010. This scenario strikes me as extremely unlikely,
but I want to encourage others to weigh in on this comment thread.
Running a statewide primary campaign is expensive. Who has the money
for that? I can't think of any self-funding candidate who would step
up to challenge Culver. Anyone else have names in mind? Organized
labor has money and is unhappy with the governor, largely because he
vetoed a collective-bargaining bill during the 2008 legislative
session. But most labor unions supported Mike Blouin in the 2006
primary, and their backing wasn't enough to defeat Culver before he
was an incumbent. Culver will go into the next campaign with huge
institutional advantages he didn't have as the secretary of state.

Labels: Chet_Culver, IDP, unions

Republican candidate for Iowa House, Jarad Klein, can't be too happy
with the results to his online poll on his campaign website. One of
Klein's top issues is keeping Iowa's Right to Work law and he links to
a Right to Work website on his website that advocates that... "No one
should be forced to pay tribute to a union in order to get or keep a
job." Klein has an online poll asking... "Legislation is being
proposed this session that would force all workers to pay union dues.
Do you support this measure?" As of Tuesday night, out of 72 votes, 53
people voted yes (74%) and just 19 people voted no (26%). Klein has to
be disappointed that almost 3/4 of the votes so far answered yes to
that question and are in favor of requiring all workers to pay for
services provided to them by unions.

Labels: state House, unions

In a Des Moines Register article today it discussed how the labor
unions of Iowa miss their typical control over liberal Democratic
state politicians when it comes to Gov. Chester Culver. I feel that is
a good thing. Gov. Culver might be playing politics and staying away
from the pandering crowd of labor unions, but I see no problem. Okay,
I see a problem. The problem is that he will still be friends to them,
because they give him money, but he wants to be far enough away so
that he can seem like a centrist, two-term or more governor. Let's
face it, Gov. Culver likes being governor. Especially after all the
news coverage of how well Iowa handled the floods and aftermath.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

Unions and Iowa's Economic Growth... A Republican friend of mine and I
have a good number of disagreements on public policy -- along with a
surprising number of agreements. My friend is very hostile towards
unions. I am not. But the other day they were arguing that not only
were unions bad for the country, they are also bad for workers, for
whom they've never done anything but take union dues and keep corrupt
officers in power. Today's topic involves both a confirmation and a
confession of error. I have often written here of the hypocrisy and
inconsistency of those Iowa leaders who simultaneously (a) bemoan the
departure of Iowa's best and brightest for greener pastures and search
for ways to retain them, while (b) continuing Iowa's hostile,
anti-union practices.

Labels: Iowa GOP, unions

Gov. Chet Culver said he knows he'll be criticized for deciding to
veto pay increases for statewide elected officials and House File
2645, which dealt with public employee collective bargaining, but
chalks it up to just doing his job. "There will be those who criticize
my actions. That is to be expected," Culver said at a 4 p.m. press
conference today. "That is a part of my job. As Harry Truman said,
'the buck stops here.'" Culver cited input from "thousands of Iowans
who have written, emailed and called me during this constitutionally
mandated review period." "While I have always been a strong supporter
of workers rights and collective bargaining, a close examination of
House File 2645 shows that it is not in the best interests of the
taxpayers of Iowa to let this legislation become law."

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

There was a terse exchange today at the statehouse as the Senate's
Republican leader tried to force action on a controversial labor bill.
The legislation would expand the subjects public employees can explore
during union contract negotiations. The bill has passed the Iowa House
and Senate, but Governor Culver raised concerns just before it was
approved by the Senate, so the top Democrat in the Senate used a
parliamentary procedure to essentially table the legislation. Senate
Republican Leader Ron Wieck of Sioux City tried today to lift that
hold and questioned Senate Democratic Leader Mike Gronstal of Council
Bluffs.

Labels: Chet_Culver, Mike Gronstal, Ron_Wieck, unions

I didn't see this last week, because despite my requests, the Boswell
campaign is still not sending their press releases to me. But on
Friday the United Auto Workers came out for Boswell in the Democratic
primary to represent Iowa's third Congressional district. Via Iowa
True Blue, here is the release from the campaign: "Des Moines, IA -
Congressman Leonard Boswell received the support of the Iowa United
Auto Workers State Community Action League (CAP) today."... It's not
clear how many UAW members in Iowa live in the third district. There
used to be a sizable number in Jasper County, but that was before
Maytag closed.

Labels: Ed_Fallon, Leonard_Boswell, unions

Eastern Iowa legislators at a weekend Leauge of Women Voter's forum in
Iowa City worked to shift the rhetoric on the collective bargaining
bill. "This just allows public sector people equal rights," said Sen.
Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville. "But the press is so biased they talk about
'union demands.'" "I think it just equalizes the playing field as to
what issues can be bargained," said Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City. "I
don't understand why an equal playing field creates problems for
administrators." Governor Chet Culver has threatened to veto the bill,
saying it hasn't received enough public debate, but Mascher countered:
"It's something Democrats have supported for many many years. It
needed to be done a long time ago."

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

David Yepsen was singing the praises of Chet Culver today for
undermining efforts to allow teachers and other public employees the
same rights as private sector employees. Apparently if this happens,
there's a chance that teachers may negotiate for smaller class sizes
as part of collective bargaining and why would any Iowa school want
smaller class sizes? Except, of course, that there is a definitive
link between class size and academic performance among students.
Yepsen also brings up the scary fact that the collective bargaining
bill would mean more binding arbitration which Yepsen is sure means
higher costs to government. However, Ed Tibbets in an exhaustive piece
for the Quad City Times shows that binding arbitration only happens
rarely.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

The repercussions of the Collective Bargaining Bill that was approved
by the Iowa Legislature are being heard around the state and from some
unlikely sources including city and county governments. At stake is
the ability for public employees to have the ability to go through
arbitration to settle labor disputes. Sadly, they find no friend in
Governor Chet Culver, who has threatened to veto the bill. The
governor who is feeling heat coming from anti-union groups, city and
county lobbying groups, and others who are reframing the outcome to
suggest that property taxes are likely to rise if this bill is signed
into law. The foes argue that if lawmakers do not have the power to
stymie labor costs then the cost will be passed on to the taxpayer.

Labels: Chet_Culver, unions

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver has been placed in something of a corner -- by
his own party, the Democrats controlling the statehouse. Yesterday's
passage of a contentious bill broadening the list of items that can be
the part of contract negotiations by public-sector unions means Culver
will be the ultimate arbiter on whether it becomes law. Culver can
veto the bill, something Republicans are urging him to do. Culver has
quite a dilemma. He likely favors the bill, he just didn't like how
quickly it was shepherded or railroaded (the word preference probably
depends on whether you're a Democrat or Republican) through the
Legislature in a matter of days. Republicans tried a walkout to stop
passage last week in the Senate; that didn't work. So the bill passed,
27-23, after six hours of acrimonious debate.

Labels: Chet_Culver, state Senate, unions

Senate Democrats and Republicans ended a 24-hour stalemate at mid-day
Friday and will delay a vote on sweeping legislation that could
drastically alter Iowa's collective bargaining laws. The agreement
means the Senate will adjourn for the weekend holiday. The Senate's 20
Republicans holed up in the Iowa Statehouse Thursday and Friday trying
to stall the bill's passage until more public comment could be made.
They refused to come back for the rest of the day and into the night,
while Democrats stood on the floor and waited. The legislature
typically adjourns on Thursday, but Republicans remained in a
conference room behind the senate chambers for more than a day as a
way to slow fast-track legislation that would give labor unions more
power to negotiate salary and working conditions.

Labels: state Senate, unions

This is a sad day for the future of Iowa's economic well being. Early
this morning, when most of Iowa was asleep, Democrats, along party
lines, succeeded in starting their love affair with big labor in this
state. I am guessing this is the first of several ways that Democrats
are working to thank organized labor for their help in taking the Iowa
legislature in 2006. This legislation, should it get through the
Senate (and sadly, I'm sure it will), will really strip school boards
of a lot of their authority over personnel and as the story in the
Register points out, will also probably result in massive tax
increases. I ran for School Board in 2004 partly because I was very
concerned over the power that the Iowa State Education Association was
getting in our local districts.

Labels: unions