Iowa Labor Laws

Branstad 'puts cap' on 2011 session

DES MOINES - Gov. Terry Branstad closed the books Friday on a contentious, protracted 2011 legislative session by finalizing a $5.999 billion spending plan for the current fiscal year that already is one month old.

Branstad signed two bills into law on Friday dealing with the state justice system agencies and the Judicial Branch, using his item-veto authority to remove language addressing some governance, privatization and education program funding issues within the state Department of Corrections. The issues were relatively minor compared to action he took earlier this week dealing with bonus pay for state executives, tax relief for working families and keeping open workforce development offices that touched off protests from legislative Democrats, labor unions and others.

"That puts the cap on legislative action and we look forward to going at it again in January and enacting some major reforms in order to create jobs and education," said Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht.

The 84th General Assembly needed 172 days to complete its work this year - pushing to within hours of the July 1 start of the 2012 fiscal year before completing work on a new budget plan. The split-control Legislature - controlled by majority Republicans in the House and majority Democrats in the Senate - agreed on June 30 to temporarily fund state programs for 30 days to give Branstad time to review late-arriving budget bills passed in the session's closing days.

Lawmakers worked overtime for two extra months trying to hammer out a $5.999 billion spending plan and a two-year budget blueprint that shrunk the general fund by about $245 million through June 30, 2012, and met Branstad's demand for a two-year budget that spends less money than the state takes in and is sustainable without employing accounting tricks or one-time funding sources to balance the ledger.

"We're still disappointed that commercial property taxes were not lowered and this will be an important issue that we re-examine again next January because we do believe that's a vital tool that we need in order to create jobs," Albrecht said.

Top Democratic lawmakers and two union leaders contended Thursday that Branstad could have aided efforts to promote jobs and economic growth by signing separate bipartisan provisions that would have kept Iowa Workforce Development field offices open and lowered tax burdens by $28 million for about 240,000 working Iowa families earning less than $45,000 annually by raising the earned income tax credit from 7 percent to 10 percent.

Blog for Iowa :: Labor Update: Hearings Today Over NLRB Proposed ...

Despite what the corporate press says, the National Labor Relations Board , which issued the proposed rules, isn’t some fly-by-night part of the government invented by Obama  to turn the country into Kenya or whatever nonsense Tea Party Sqwakers alledge.  Just this month, on July 5th the National Labor Relations Act celebrated its’ 76th Anniversary. Congress passed the law in the1930s in order to protect workers from exploitation, hence the name Labor in the act, not business. At the time of its passage, just 10% of workers belonged to unions and they faced everything from Pinkerton police beating, harassing and murdering them for trying to organize.  Or falling to their deaths to avoid burning to death in the case of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in which company owners locked workers in the plant in order to keep union organizers out. One hundred forty-six women were killed on that dreadful day one hundred years ago. By 1945, during the heydey of union organizing the number of American workers who had chosen to join unions had increased to over 35% of the labor force, a truly remarkable effort that led to the creation of what has been called the Greatest Generation. This was an era when babies boomed, highways were unrolled across the country, and men (at least those of European descent) born into poverty in city ghettos could buy a home, feed their families, and retire with dignity instead of disease.   Fast forward to today and the new makeup of the NLRB  – mostly professionals from unions rather than professional businessmen – has recognized that the rules for organizing long stacked against protecting workers rights to “self- organization and to engage in concerted activities for collective bargaining” must be modernized to deal with 21st Century realities. The persistent mythology regarding organized labor in the USA would have you believe that despite declining membership and wages, in lieu of the fact that workers pay more for health insurance, and regardless of the trend toward workers self-funding 401 K plans instead of retiring with defined pension plans, it is workers who choose to organize into unions that have brought about America’s economic decline. For the past couple years, mass layoffs plagued the country, but now layoffs have slowed, things haven’t gotten any better because nobody’s hiring. Long-term unemployment is worse now than during the great depression. The Washington D.C.

Iowa labor laws

History of labor legislation in Iowa

Labor laws of Iowa, a guide for the Iowa employer who is operating a small or medium-sized business

Labor laws and their enforcement, with special reference to Massachusetts

North American free trade, issues and recommendations