To Be Announced...

Having won the minimum wage increase for labor unions, the Democrats are trying to weasel out of adopting the "fair share" legislation request from those same unions.

David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register has it right today. Just as I did weeks ago. See Post from earlier this month.

Pay particular attention to the comments of Mike Gronstal on the Iowa Press program from November of last year:

Gronstal: WELL, THE CONCEPT IS IF THE THREE OF YOU ARE REPRESENTED BY A GROUP AND YOU DON'T PAY ANYTHING AND THEY PAY, YOU'RE A FREELOADER. YOU'RE GETTING ALONG -- YOU'RE GETTING A FREE RIDE FOR ALL THE SERVICES THAT THEY PROVIDE. YOU'RE A FREELOADER. ASKING YOU TO PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE OF THE DUES -- NOT THE ENTIRE DUES BUT YOUR FAIR SHARE FOR THE BENEFITS YOU RECEIVE

When you promise something like that using language like that...you're bound to be stuck in between the rock and the hard place.

Yepsen: Dems pursue right-to-work changes at their peril

This year, the unions started pushing something called "fair share." Instead of repealing right to work, they said they'd just ask that non-union workers be required to pay a fee to the union for services the union provides them, like representation in a grievance proceeding.

It's not only the union-backed candidates for the legislature that are in a tough spot...the Governor is too..

Gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver endorsed the idea at the state labor convention in Waterloo. So did many other Democratic candidates.

But now, lawyers and others trying to craft the legislation to enact it are discovering that they can't do it without gutting part of the right-to-work law. (That law also says it's illegal to collect "dues, charges, fees, contributions, fines or assessments to any labor union, labor association or labor organization" as a condition of employment.)

Yepsen says that calling it "fair share" sounds more reasonable than nixing the Right to Work law in Iowa...but not when you call people "freeloaders"...

Democrats are researching the possibility of a fair-share requirement for teachers and other public employees.

That may be the only out for Democrats. They'll have to squeeze between that rock and hard place pretty good, but after Culver is done giving them the largest raise in Iowa history, they probably won't complain too much.

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Labels: fair share