This Union Just Won The Largest-Ever Wage Increase In Iowa

A small eight-person police department in western Iowa just won what’s believed to be the largest collectively bargained wage increase in Iowa history.

The Carter Lake Peace Officers Association, the union covering the eight police officers of the City of Carter Lake, won 12% raises for new hires and up to 42% raises for their veteran officers in their next three-year contract.

The increase was decided by an arbitrator on Tuesday, favoring the union’s proposal over the city’s proposal of 12% increases across the board.

How did they win so much?

The union and city met four times last fall to bargain, ending in what the union said was a handshake deal. They say the city then, after calculating how much the raises would be, went back on the deal.

The arbitrator agreed with the union based on that handshake agreement, as well as taking into consideration the pay for police officers in nearby communities. Carter Lake is a suburb of Omaha, Nebraska.

“If a public employer does not adequately value their police officers or firefighters, a union can still win a victory for these workers,” said Nate Willems, the attorney for the union.

Police exempt from Iowa’s law gutting union power

Changes to Iowa’s Chapter 20 law gutting collective bargaining in 2017, undertaken by Republicans hostile to unions, made it all but impossible for most unions to bargain for anything above 3% increases in pay. That means most Iowa workers actually lose money in years like these, when inflation is more than double that.

But Republicans carved out an exemption to those rules: Police and firefighter unions could still ask for more than 3% when bargaining.

“The legislature may have drastically reduced the rights of public employees in Iowa, but this decision shows how unions can still dramatically improve the lives and livelihoods of public safety employees,” Willems said.

Read the full decision here.

by Amie Rivers
3/22/23

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