All of the Iowa State Education Association’s local unions representing teachers and staff in an Iowa school district have voted to recertify with the union, while more than a dozen union locals representing county and city employees in Iowa have been decertified.
A state law passed in 2017 requires a majority of public sector employees to vote “yes” to retain their local union every year. Iowa State Education Association president Mike Beranek says thousands of Iowa educators are loudly and firmly telling the legislature and governor that public employees want collective bargaining rights and have overcome “the obstacle” of having any person who doesn’t vote counted as a no.
Results for all public sector union votes are posted on the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board website. It shows unions will no longer represent 15 bargaining units for city and county employees, while more than 150 other union locals were recertified for the next round of contract negotiations.
The recertification votes failed in the following bargaining units: City of Algona AFSCAME Council 61 (police), Calhoun County CWA Local 7173, Cerro Gordo County PPME Local 2003 (Roads), Cerro Gordo County Board of Health PPME Local 2003, Dallas County EMS Professionals, Henry County PPME Local 2003, Ida County PPME Local 2003 (Roads), Independence Municipal Utility IBEW Local 55, Jackson County Detention Center Employees Association, Jackson County Employees Association, Lee County PPME Local 2003 (Roads), Pocahontas County CWA Local 7173 (Roads), Pottawattamie County Teamsters Local 554 (Detention Officers), Ringgold County PPME Local 2003 (Roads), Scott County Library System Teamsters Local 238.