Iowa public employees would have more privacy while forming a union under proposed legislation in the Iowa House.
Mike Cormack, a former Republican lawmaker in the Iowa House, heads the state's public employee relations board. He wants to keep workers' names private when they ask to organize or decertify a union.
Cormack says though a union vote is strictly secret, the names of those calling for the vote are not.
“You have a right to organize under Chapter 20, you have a right not to,” Cormack says. “So in this situation, if you're asking for it, you'd be provided the same protection of a private ballot.”
Cormack says additional anonymity protects workers from backlash by employers or fellow workers.
Most public employee unions organized years ago after collective bargaining became law, but Cormack says government workers in Iowa still occasionally vote to organize, or quit a union.
For example Cormack says in the Panorama School district, 10 bus drivers want to organize. Under current law, three of them must publicly request the vote.
“If I’m that employee and I ask to have an election, that could cause me to have retribution,” Cormack says.
Cormack’s proposal comes in contrast to a Republican plan to open up more information about state workers.
