Inwood, Iowa — A new law passed earlier this year is going to affect public employee employment in Iowa. One of the things that the new law does is require recertification elections for public employee unions and professional organizations. And just such an election was held on Tuesday at a school district in northwest Iowa.
Shane Peterson is one of the co-presidents of the West Lyon Education Association or WLEA. He says the WLEA is a member organization of the Iowa State Education Association and the National Education Association. He tells us about the vote.
Mike Cormack is the chair of the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board. He says if the local bargaining unit votes a union out, then no union may represent them for at least two years. Cormack also stresses that in order to retain their current union, a unit has to have the majority of potential members vote to retain the union — NOT the majority of voters in the election.
Peterson says that was not a problem in West Lyon as the vote was unanimous — except for two ballots that were not returned.
He says that it’s their understanding, however, that under the new law the non-returned ballots count as “no” votes, since everyone has to vote. He says if they had failed to receive a “yes” from a majority of members, it is also their understanding that the master contract with the West Lyon Community School District would’ve ceased to exist.
Peterson says that keeping the union in place will benefit teachers, students, and parents.
Peterson says since they have one-year contracts, they will need to vote again next year. But he says one headache will be eliminated next time. He says the next vote will be electronic and they won’t have to worry that the ballot, which was sent to teachers’ home addresses, will be mistaken for a piece of junk mail.
