Branstad broke bargaining law | TheGazette

Hi, Governor Branstad here. As a fellow public employee I’d like to ask you to sacrifice 5 to 10 times as much as I have to to make things equal.  It’s completely voluntary, but we’ve *ahem* asked all of the department heads to join myself and Lt. Gov. Reynolds in covering 20% of the healthcare premiums the state covers in lieu of wages equal to the private sector, 100% full time employment (who doesn’t love a furlough now and then?), and years without even a COLA raise, because it’s the right thing to do.

I know that not all of you have cushy private sector pension benefits to fall back on, and that your healthcare benefits are one of the few things that we can’t really take away from you, but we think that it’s time that state employees give something back to the taxpayers, aside from doing the work you’ve been hired to do.

Oh, and pay no attention to the Union leaders that tell you this is a complete violation of collective bargaining laws, they’re just worried that you’ll be so happy to give up an additional 10% of your income that you’ll let us “bully” you into giving up the rest of your collective bargaining rights. I have no idea where they would get that kind of idea.

Thank you and good night (oh and go ahead and take this week off, unpaid of course! Everyone loves a furlough!)