The governor and Republicans in the state legislature want to end automatic payroll deductions for the DUES paid to public sector unions. The collective bargaining bill being debated in the Iowa House and Senate this week would make THAT change AND require government workers to vote regularly on whether they want to have a union in their workplace. Republican Governor Terry Branstad says the vote to establish the Iowa State Education Association as the union for Iowa teachers happened in the 1970s.

“Is it really fair that the teachers of today are stuck with a bargaining unit that was agreed upon in the ’70s, before they were even born?” Branstad says. “It seems to me this is an antiquated law that needs to be updated and the people that are actually employed today ought to have some voice in it.” Critics say these two moves could be the “death knell” for unions that represent government workers in Iowa. Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo who was a union worker at John Deere, says Republicans are trying to “stack the deck.”

“You want to get rid of the labor unions because you know how difficult it would be to collect those dues individually, but I’ve got news for you,” Dotzler said. “I’ve got a feeling that this is going to really incite members of the labor union and they’re going to sign up through the union and have that sent automatic.” Republicans say tax dollars shouldn’t be used through the payroll process to funnel dues to unions.

Florida legislators had a similar debate in 2011 about union dues. According to Politifact, analysts in THAT state concluded there were “positive, but insignificant” savings by ending the state payroll deduction for union dues. According to the Iowa Legislative Services Agency, requiring regular VOTES about whether a union should represent government workers would have “an unknown fiscal impact.”

(Radio Iowa)

For the past two days, Democrats have been staging a sort of filibuster on the bill Republicans in the state legislature have crafted that would scale back union bargaining rights for teachers and government workers in Iowa. Republicans began offering some rebuttals late Wednesday afternoon. Representative Dawn Pettingill, a Republican from Mount Auburn, says there’s nothing “nefarious” in the bill and she read email from supporters of the bill.

“It’s time to revert the progressive agenda in our state. I pray for you, your families and your colleagues in this difficult time. Stand your ground and keep the faith and persevere,” Pettingill said. Representative Rick Olson, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the bill will kill the bargaining rights of teachers and government workers in Iowa.

“If it was necessary to reform Chapter 20, it could have been tweaked, not twisted. It could have been modified, not mutilated,” Olson said. “House File 291 burns hard working public employees to the ground.” Olson compared the bill to “Sherman’s March to the Sea,” a reference to a Union general’s pivotal and destructive march through Georgia during the Civil War.

Tempers began to fray as the debate wore on into nighttime hours for the second straight day. Democratic Representative Mary Mascher of Iowa City and Representative Steven Holt, the Republican from Denison who is the bill’s floor manager, had this testy exchange: “It’s really unfortunate that you aren’t being clear and honest,” Mascher said and, as Mascher continued to speak, Holt talked over her: “I’m being quite clear, I’m just not willing to play gotcha questions.” The House suspended debate on the bill shortly after 10 p.m.

The SENATE debated into the early morning hours and Senate Minority Leader Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids hinted he and his fellow Democrats are ready to debate for days. “I’m prepared,” Hogg says. “We can spend the next 240 hours here at the senate, doing this.” Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, accused Republicans of “railroading” the bill through the legislature.

“Can you hear the train?…It’s on the track. It’s coming. This is a very complicated piece of legislation. It appears you’ve made up your minds. We’re going to get run over by the train. This commotion that you’re going to create with this is not going to go away by Saturday or Sunday or the next week,” Bolkcom said. “…It’s going to be around for quite a while.” Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, predicted that the G-O-P’s plan will “backfire.”

“Sleep drunk. Don’t know what you’re doing,” Dotzler says. “You can make that excuse down the road when your constituents turn on you. ‘Well, I was there at three o’clock in the morning and if I’d had some sleep, maybe I’d have thought through that.'”

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A plan by Republican lawmakers in Iowa to pass a bill that would cut most collective bargaining rights for public workers could also tame a political force that often supports their opponents. The proposed changes to Iowa’s collective bargaining law would drastically change how public sector unions are able to negotiate on behalf of roughly 180,000 people in the state. Academics say it would weaken unions who usually support Democrats.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — Police in central Iowa have arrested a man they say left messages at a high school threatening to kill a transgender student there. The Nevada Public Safety Department says police arrested 65-year-old Mondell Olson, of Ames, on Wednesday after an investigation into that threat and another harassing voicemail left for a Nevada High School teacher. Olson has been charged with three counts of harassment and remained Wednesday in the Story County Jail.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The longtime No. 2 administrator at the University of Iowa is leaving to become president of a Florida college that focuses on aerospace education. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University says UI Provost P. Barry Butler would start next month as the school’s president. Butler, a former engineering dean and professor, had been at Iowa since 1984.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley says Russia’s alleged attempts to meddle in November’s presidential election shouldn’t be a surprise given the United States worked to discredit the Italian Communist Party in Italy’s 1948 election. The U.S. was engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union at the time, and the CIA later acknowledged spending $1 million to try to sway the election away from communists. Grassley said Wednesday that the U.S. “doesn’t come to this table hands-free.”