On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

The House approved legislation this week to expand the list of items that either management or workers could choose to include in collective bargaining negotiations for government workers and public school teachers. The intention is to give all sides involved in public sector collective bargaining the same bargaining rights that private sector contract negotiators already have. For the public sector, current law only requires that certain items can be brought up for discussion during contract negotiations, including wages, holidays, vacation, seniority, transfers and job classifications. Other items can be added to the list of discussion items, but only if both sides agree.

The House-approved legislation expands the list of discussion items that either side can raise to include overtime pay, health and safety issues, evaluation procedures, shift differentials, uniforms and equipment, staffing levels, in-service training and preparation time, class size (for educators), grounds for discipline and discharge, and certain other items. With current law, I’ve seen where some peace officers have had to pay for their own protective gear and firearms, which I think is unfortunate; this legislation would at least allow peace officers to

bring this into the negotiations.

The effect of current law is that any item not listed in statute as a negotiable item can be used as a bargaining tool against whichever side wants to introduce that item into contract discussions. For example, if a local government wants tougher employee evaluation procedures, under current law the public workers’ union can refuse to even allow the issue to be discussed. Or if a union negotiator wants to talk about higher overtime pay, under current law the employer can hold out for some concession in return just for allowing overtime pay to be discussed

during contract negotiations.

“Open scope” bargaining doesn’t mandate that either side give in on any bargaining issue; it merely expands the list of issues that either side can raise during contract negotiations. The intention is to try to minimize the amount of “horse-trading” that goes into preliminary contract bargaining and to level the playing field for everyone

involved. This is what private sector bargaining already allows, and

similar to what public sector negotiators in 34 other states already have. It’s an overdue updating of a law that has served Iowa well for three decades and which continues to prohibit public employees from going on strike.