Iowa Workers Won’t Be Tricked Again – They Know Another Four Years of Reynolds’ Anti-Worker Agenda Will Be No Treat

It’s been a scary two years for Iowa’s workers since Governor Kim Reynolds and her cronies in the State Legislature took full control. Despite saying nothing about it in their campaigns and claiming they would only “tweak” Iowa’s collective bargaining laws once the issue came to the table, it only took ten days for Iowa Republicans to strip Iowa workers of their rights and completely gut the decades old law governing collective bargaining.

The terror didn’t stop there – Republicans went after worker’s compensationand now, they’re setting their sights on IPERS.

Immediately after they took full control in 2017, Senator Brad Zaun introduced Senate File 45 – a bill that would privatize IPERS for all future members.

Then, with the support of Governor Reynolds, Legislative Republicans brought in The Reason Foundation, another Koch Brothers project, to “study” IPERS. The libertarian-Reason Foundation has released a “pension reform handbook” that pushes states away from “defined benefit” systems like IPERS and towards riskier “defined contribution” plans similar to 401(k)s.

Just in June of this year, Governor Reynolds said she was looking at a hybrid or different options to change the IPERS system. And just last week, Governor Reynolds again refused to make any solid commitment to the future members of the IPERS program.

Now, Governor Reynolds is accepting mountains of cash from Missouri Anti-Worker Special Interest Rex Sinquefield who is actively trying to strip teacher pensions and turn them over to a privatized system. It’s the first donation Sinquefield has made to any candidate in Iowa, an indication of how closely his and Reynolds’ priorities align.

But what may be the spookiest consequence of them all, IPERS impacts the health and growth of Iowa’s consumer economy. According to the State Treasurer, IPERS pays nearly $1.7 billion to Iowa residents each year who then, in turn, spend that money in Iowa’s economy.

If the program were to privatize and reduce benefits, an almost certain consequence of the Republicans’ proposals, that would mean less money in the pockets of every Iowa family.

“The Republicans are claiming that these criticisms are ‘scare tactics,’ but the proof of their intention to attack IPERS comes from their own quotes and actions. Iowa workers won’t be tricked again – they know four more years’ of Governor Reynolds’ anti-worker agenda will be no treat,”said Iowa Democratic Party Spokesperson Tess Seger.

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