In angry video, Iowa labor leader vows to fight law that would 'bust public sector unions'

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An Iowa labor leader in a YouTube video is accusing state legislators of trying to bust unions and raising the possibility of “rolling strikes” over a bill that would add what he says is an onerous new resgulation for public employee bargaining units.

In the video posted Thursday evening, Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 238, which represents a variety of government employees, expressed his frustration with Senate Study Bill 3158, saying the measure is “another attempt to bust public sector unions across the state."

“But guess what, we’re fighting back. We’re not taking it. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take the fight to them. We’re going to take the fight to their town, to their county, to their farm, to their business. We’re going to have rolling strikes across the state of Iowa,” Case says in the video.

The bill, which cleared a subcommittee Wednesday, would amend legislation passed in 2017 that requires collective bargaining units to hold a recertification vote about 10 months before the expiration of an existing contract, allowing members to say whether they want to continue to be represented by the union. The new measure would require the employer― such as a state agency, a police department or a school ― to provide a list of employees in the bargaining unit within 10 days of receiving notice from the Iowa Public Employee Relations Board of a recertification election.

If the employer fails to submit the list within five days, PERB would immediately decertify the union. The union would then need to petition a district court to require the employer to submit the list of employees ― a potentially costly and time-consuming process.

It's not clear how Case, who did not respond to a request for comment, would carry out his strike threat. State law prohibits public employees from striking. An article by Case on the Teamsters Local 238 website, however, hints that union opposition to the state proposal may take different forms, such as picketing rather than actually walking off the job.

"We’re putting elected officials on notice ― if you tried to bust our union in the last five years ― you’re on our list. If you’ve been elected to office and you think it’s your right to deny workers a union –― you’re on our radar," he wrote in the article. "We will be reaching out to local elected officials in the coming months and asking them to restore union rights ― and if they don’t, we will picket, we will protest, we will stand up, and sit in if we have to ― because public sector union busters are no longer going to get a free pass."

AFSCME leader says that while bill is 'unfortunate,' members won't go on strike

Todd Copley, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, representing some 40,000 public sector workers statewide, told the Des Moines Register on Friday that his organization does not condone the message in Case's video.

Copley said he agrees that the proposed bill "unfortunately penalizes the wrong party" by holding unions accountable if an employer fails to file an employee list prior to a recertification election. But he said his union will not violate the law prohibiting public employees from striking and that AFSCME will be "educating our members" about the union's opposition to the proposed bill.

Republicans Jason Schultz of Schleswig and Adrian Dickey of Packwood, the subcommittee members who voted Wednesday to send the bill to the full Committee on Workforce, were the focus of Case’s anger in the video.

Case named both in the video accusing them of union busting. The Iowa GOP platform includes a provision calling for "legislation that would eliminate all public sector unions."

Schultz did not respond to a call seeking comment Friday. Dickey referred questions to Schultz, the floor manager for the bill.

Is 'dark money' behind the new proposed labor regulation?

Case in his video also calls out “dark money from out of our state” as trying to influence labor laws in Iowa. A representative of the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank that recently launched a direct action arm, spoke in favor of the law at Wednesday’s hearing. The group's website indicates one of its missions is allowing workers to forego union representation, if they choose.

Teamsters Local 238 is just one of the unions that represents public employees across Iowa. Case saysthe effects of the proposed legislation would force it alone to have to “sue between 50 and 100 school districts, cities and counties” each year if employers fail to file employee lists.

“It's going to affect our members statewide from people who are plowing streets in Davenport to cops in Keokuk to school district support staff in Clear Lake to people who are picking up trash in our neighborhoods. The people who are maintaining our water treatment plants, it's going to affect people across the state and across the board,” Case says.

He calls for union members to “join the fight” and says the union will be sending out communication in coming days on how to prepare for rolling strikes, in which a part of a bargaining unit walks off the job while others continue to work.

“We're going to have concerted activity and businesses across the state of Iowa. We're going to have protests at businesses across the state of Iowa, and we're going to shut down business in the state of Iowa if they shut down unions. We're not going to let them burn down the house of labor without going down without a fight. We're here to fight,” Case says.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Teamsters leader talks of 'rolling strikes' against new Iowa law