DES MOINES, IOWA (April 24, 2024) — Intense and sustained opposition by Iowa Teamsters to SF2374, legislation that would gut public sector unions, led to the bill’s final defeat at the close of the legislative session on Saturday.
The bill, originally introduced by Senators Adrian Dickey (R-Packwood) and Jason Schultz (R-Schleswig) in February 2024, received strong public pushback from Iowa Teamsters, including the Missouri-Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Teamsters, Joint Councils 25 and 32, and Locals 90, 120, 238, 371, 554, and 710.
If signed into law, the bill would have required public employers to submit a list of their employees to the state upon the expiration of a collective-bargaining agreement. If the employer chose not to provide the list, the union would have had to sue the employer in district court or be decertified.
“Working people have crushed an absolutely disgusting bill that would have hurt public employees and unfairly targeted unions,” said Alano De La Rosa, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 90 in Des Moines. “Since 2017, Iowa lawmakers have set their sights on destroying public-sector unions. This attack on Iowa public-sector unions is now where it belongs — in the trash.”
“Iowa legislators heard Teamsters loud and clear about how disastrous this bill would have been,” said Tom Erickson, President of Joint Council 32 and Teamsters Central Region International Vice President. “Public-sector workers are essential to every community in Iowa. Every day, they deserve the respect and protections of strong collective-bargaining agreements that preserve dignity on the job. If elected officials in Iowa — or anywhere across the nation — want to continue to push legislation undermining public-sector workers, those corporate-owned politicians better be prepared to go to battle with 1.3 million Teamsters.”
Iowa’s original public sector bargaining law passed in 1974 by a Democrat-led legislature and signed by a Republican governor in a bipartisan fashion and was considered one of the fairest and most effective laws in the nation for more than forty years. In 2017, Iowa legislators drastically weakened public-sector bargaining laws in the state when Republicans took over all three branches of government. The aftermath has led to higher turnover and lowered standards in what had previously been considered career jobs.
Teamsters Joint Council 32 represents more than 75,000 active and retired members at twelve affiliate unions in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. For more information, visit teamstersjc32.org.
