DES MOINES, IA – The decision by AFSCME Council 61 members to approve a deal to avoid layoffs of state workers is a historic victory for Gov. Chet Culver, and one that points up one of Terry Branstad’s dramatic leadership failures.

Gov. Culver successfully negotiated a deal with about 20,000 state workers that would substitute five furlough days this fiscal year for layoffs of hundreds of workers.  The agreement, and its approval by AFSCME membership, is remarkable in Iowa political history.

“Gov. Culver went to the table in good faith, and state workers have rewarded that effort to deal with budget issues that were caused by the global recession without laying off state workers,” Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Mike Kiernan said Monday. “It’s a sign of strong leadership, and Iowa is fortunate to be resolving budget issues in this way, rather than the cumbersome and divisive process we have seen used in other states and even our own in the past.”

Kiernan congratulated Culver and Council 61 President Dan Homan on their hard work over several weeks in reaching the agreement.

The Culver-AFSCME agreement stands in stark contrast to AFSCME Council 61, et. al., v. Branstad, a lawsuit that went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1991.  During the recession of 1991-92, Terry Branstad decided the state didn’t have the money in its budget to pay state workers the wages for which they had already contracted.

The workers had to sue the sitting Governor, Branstad, just to fulfill the wage contract they had bargained for with the state.  They won and Branstad lost.  Branstad then decided to call a special session of the legislature in the summer of 1992.  There he succeeded in raising the sales tax, just to get the state’s budget back into balance after his failed scheme to short state workers their salaries.

“Both Culver and Branstad were called upon to address a contract with state workers in tough budget times,” Kiernan said Monday. “And the contrast couldn’t be clearer – fairness and compassion on one hand, and a bitter, lingering court fight on the other.”

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