Northwest Iowa — A law passed in 2017 has required public employees to vote whether to retain their unions.
The Iowa Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) completed the third year of retention and recertification elections for Iowa’s public employee associations. In 2017, the Iowa legislature mandated the establishment of the retention and recertification elections within 10 months of the expiration of the associations’ contract with the public employer.
In 2019, 297 retention and recertification elections were conducted. There are currently 1134 units in the state. This time, 286 of the 297 of the units were recertified, 96.3 percent. Eleven units were not recertified. The units were all representing political subdivisions of the state – school districts, cities, counties, area education agencies, and community colleges.
In our area, employees of four school districts, one county road department, one city, one police department, and the area education agency serving our area held retention and recertification elections this month.
Northwest Area Education Agency has two unions. Employees eligible to be members of their Professional Staff Association voted to retain their union. They needed at least 88 and got 151. Employees eligible to be members of their Associate Professional Staff Association also voted to retain. They needed 25 and received 35.
Employees of the Lyon County Secondary Road Department did NOT vote to retain their union. They needed 13 yes votes but only received 10.
Employees at Sioux Center Community School District voted for retention. They needed 60 and got 107.
Employees at West Sioux Community School District voted for retention too. They needed 36 and received 43.
At George/Little Rock Community Schools, they need 20 and got 38, so their union will be retained.
Sheldon Police officers voted to retain their union as well. They needed at least 4 votes and received 6.
Other Sheldon City employees also voted to retain their union. They needed 5 and got 8.
Incidentally, the leaders of the police and city employee unions in Sheldon are considering a merger.
And at MOC-Floyd Valley, they needed 60 votes to retain their union, and received 102 “yes” votes, so they will retain their union as well.
