IowaPolitics.com BlogWatch

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