Culver will seek concessions from state employee unions

DES MOINES — Deepening budget problems likely are going to require Gov. Chet Culver to seek to reopen contract talks with state employee unions who negotiated incremental pay raises in fiscal 2011, a top Culver aide says.

“We are going to request concessions,” Culver chief of staff John Frew said in an interview Wednesday.

Frew said there have been several preliminary discussions with the state’s three employee bargaining units regarding the likelihood of largescale layoffs this year and the procedures that must be followed to implement a work force reduction over the next few months. The largest state employees’ union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61, plans to convene its state bargaining committee to discuss the budget situation and its ramifications.

“We want to reiterate our expectation that going forward, the state of Iowa should treat this current situation the same as it would a major plant closing, and provide all appropriate support to workers who are being laid off that is available to them,” an AFSCME statement released Wednesday said.

Leaders of the state’s executive-branch departments this week submitted proposals for cutting agency budgets uniformly by 10 percent yet this fiscal year. The plans call for up to 791 employee layoffs and eliminating 529 vacant positions to help cut $565 million by next June 30. Frew said the work force reduction and vacant positions that were identified represent “hundreds of millions of dollars,” and the governor is interested in finding ways to mitigate cuts in areas that deal with public safety, services to children and vulnerable adults and work force development.

Discussions over restoring money to those priority areas likely would take place with state lawmakers next ses sion once budget managers get a better sense of revenue projections in December, he said.

Frew said a surprising development was the number of funded but vacant full-time positions that were identified among executive-branch agencies.

“I guess that’s good news-bad news: why were they still vacant and did we really need them?
Will we need them in the future? That’s a good savings for us,” he said.

House GOP Leader Kraig Paulsen of Hiawatha has proposed that the governor renegotiate the fiscal 2011 contract provisions that call for a 2 percent pay raise July 1 and another 1 percent increase on Jan. 1, 2011.