AWF Victory: Iowa Democrat Gov. Vetos Forced Bargaining Bill
In March of 2008, the Democrat-lead Iowa state legislature voted on and passed H.F. 2645 which forced mandatory bargaining on a teacher quality law that significantly titled the playing field in favor of Big Labor. Here are some problems that AWF saw and other noted with the bill.
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The Des Moines Register reported on 3-20-08 that “school boards would lose much of their authority to determine a number of issues, including scheduling, class size and early retirement benefits for staff…”
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Currently in the items which can be discussed in the scope of union bargaining are: wages, vacations, holidays, seniority, transfer procedures, job classifications, procedures for staff reduction, and in-service training.
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Items that Democrats are adding to the list are: workshift schedules, insurance carriers, leaves of absence, shift differentials, overtime compensation, supplemental pay, health or safety matters, evaluation procedures, preparation time, class size, work uniforms, staffing levels and retirement systems.
This bill passed the Democrat controlled Iowa state House and Senate, despite our considerable opposition in the state legislature, and was then sent to Gov. Culver's (D) desk for approval.
AWF was able to succesfully lobby the Governors office and the result was a Democrat Governor vetoed a forced union bargaining bill passed by a Democrat House and Senate.
We applaud Gov. Culver's courage to stand on principle and thank him for his leadership on this divisive issue.
