A judge in Iowa has penalized the head of a county board of supervisors for interfering with AFSCME Council 61members’ union rights.
Late last summer, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors chairman Matthew Ung issued a press release lashing outat AFSCME members who work at the Woodbury County Attorney’s Office (Local 3462) for rejecting a proposal to curb short staffing in the office.
Ung claimed the union members were threatening public safety by not signing the agreement and went so far as to call for the dissolution of the union, saying they’d get a better deal from the county without a union at their side. Even worse, his press release included the personal cell phone number of Local 3462’s president and encouraged the public to “pressure these union members.”
According to Todd Copley, Council 61’s president, Ung’s release had it all wrong — short staffing had long been a problem for the attorney’s office, which the union members tried to address in the past, and county supervisors had repeatedly rejected requests for raises before.
Now, a judge has found that Ung’s statements represented “unlawful interference” in workers’ union-protected rights and ordered him to cease and desist.
“We are not the enemy. The workers rejected the MOU,” said Copley, referring to the memorandum of understanding the union members voted down. “They are the experts on what’s causing nearly half the positions to remain unfilled. We want this problem fixed. But if you break the law, if you threaten AFSCME members, there will be consequences.”
Copley also noted that in 20 years, he’d never seen a ruling come back so quickly.
“The judge was not messing around on this,” Copley said.
The ruling also requires Ung to issue an official statement admitting he had violated the law, which must be posted for 30 days in places where county employees will see them — a good lesson to other union-busting bosses.
Copley said the ruling “is a resounding victory for every public employee in Iowa.”
“This decision is a reminder that public employees’ rights are protected under Iowa law, and no elected official is above that law,” he added.