State labor upheaval in Iowa follows national trend

| Cedar Rapids Gazette | 23 December 2012 |  Public-sector collective bargaining probably is experiencing the most upheaval and attacks it’s seen in four decades with Iowa increasingly joining the fray, experts on labor-management relations say. And, the pressure is likely to intensify, they warn, as state budgets get squeezed by cutbacks in federal money and rising costs associated with pension, health insurance and other benefits negotiated over the years — often in lieu of wage increases — that could create unsustainable financial cliffs at the state and local levels exacerbated by an aging workforce. … Danny Homan, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61 — the largest state employees union that has sparred many times with Branstad during his five terms as governor, including prevailing in a court fight over an arbitrators binding award over 20 years ago — —aid his union made a modest offer that initially has been rebuffed by the governor’s negotiating team.