Protecting Iowa's Right-to-Work Law
Issue Overview: For 60 years, Iowa has enjoyed the status of being a "right-to-work" state. This means that no employee can be forced to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. Changing Iowa's law on right-to-work will have devastating effects. Economic development professionals quote business relocation specialists who indicate that 50 percent of their clients will not even consider moving to a state that is not a right-to-work state.
House and Senate leadership have made it very clear they plan to move forward on legislation to "modify" Iowa's right-to-work law. NFIB/Iowa has joined a larger coalition of business groups in order to educate legislators about the importance of Iowa's right-to-work law and the potential harm that may follow any changes to our law.
NFIB Position: In the 2006 ballot, 88.4 percent of NFIB/Iowa members were opposed to repealing Iowa's right-to-work law. Our position on this issue is very clear. NFIB will continue to fight against changes to Iowa's right-to-work law.
Issue Status: One change that could come before the Legislature this year is a plan to scale "fair share" back to apply only to public unions. This would allow union dues to be collected from school teachers, firefighters, police officers and other state and municipal workers who have chosen not to join the unions.
According to David Denholm, president of the Public Service Research Foundation, an independent nonprofit organization that studies union influence on public policy, almost 19,000 of the 29,000 Iowa workers who have chosen not join a union are public employees. With union dues averaging about $500 a year, this could put an additional $15 million in the unions' coffers if a "fair share" fee is adopted.
Additionally, Iowa would still lost its right-to-work status. Courts around the country have consistently held that "fees" forced on any citizens of a state violate right-to-work laws.
