Republicans failed again to break Iowa's largest teachers' union

When Iowa Republicans eviscerated public sector bargaining rights in 2017, they hoped to break the state’s largest labor organizations by creating new barriers to union representation. The law requires public employees to recertify their union in each contract period, which is usually two or three years. To be recertified, the union needs a majority of all employees in the bargaining unit to vote “yes.” Anyone who does not vote in the recertification election is deemed to be a vote against the union.

No members of Congress or statewide officials could be elected in Iowa if candidates needed a majority of all eligible voters to win, and non-voters counted against each candidate.

But for five years in a row, Iowa’s largest public-sector unions have won an overwhelming majority of the recertification votes. The Iowa State Education Association (ISEA) announced on October 26 that recertification passed in all 78 of its bargaining units that held elections this year.

Those associations have more than 11,000 employees combined and include large school districts (Johnston, Linn-Mar, West Des Moines, Southeast Polk) as well as small ones (Hamburg in the state’s southeast corner, with around 150 students enrolled). Educators want union representation not only in blue counties but all over Iowa, even in the most heavily Republican areas (Boyden-Hull in Sioux County).

Read more: https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2021/10/26/republicans-failed-again-to-break-iowas-largest-teachers-union/