Des Moines, IA- The Teamsters Union staged an hour-long protest outside the Iowa Capitol Wednesday over a bill about certification votes for unions representing state and local government workers.
Radio Iowa reports that Jesse Case is secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 238.
“We’re standing up, we’re fighting back, we’re united and this is just the beginning.”
The Teamsters represent public sector workers who drive school buses and snow plows and work at water and sewage treatment plants.
“The public sector bargaining law wasn’t broken in 2017 and they broke it and now they want to break it some more,” Case said. “Well, guess what? We’ve had enough and our members are not obligated to go above and beyond the call of duty while they’re under attack.”
The bill in question would decertify union representation for public sector workers if their manager fails to send a list of local union members to the state.
Republicans who support the bill say some managers have not been following that requirement and some recertification votes haven’t been held.
Case says some public sector employees are being asked to be on-call outside of work hours, which is a violation of their union contracts.
“I’m telling you right now, the next time that there’s a union busting bill signed into law, people across this state will start feeling the effects of service,” Case says. “…People don’t have to get up in the middle of the night to push snow when they’re not being paid to be on call.”
A plane also flew over the capitol with a banner that said “Kill Senator Dickey’s Union Busting Bill.” Senator Adrian Dickey of Packwood leads the committee that approved the bill which sparked Wednesday’s protest.
