Commerce Committee Passes Anti-Union Bill

What to know: House Bill 745, sponsored by perennial anti-union lawmakers Rep. Judy Boyle (R-Midvale) and Sen. Ben Toews (R-Coeur d’Alene), will weaken longstanding rights and benefits enjoyed by every public sector union in the state.  

• On Wednesday, the bill passed 8-6 out of the Commerce and Human Resources Committee after a two-and-a-half hour hearing.  

• This is a different bill than House Bill 601, which was also sponsored by Boyle. HB 601 is still being held in committee.   

What anti-union lawmakers said: Most of the committee members who voted against the bill did not attempt to justify their votes. Those who did revealed much about the bill’s intent.  

• Boyle said the bill is directed specifically toward IEA members, but the intent extends to all public-sector unions. “It is about all unions,” Boyle said. “As I said, we wanted to clarify — law enforcement and firefighters are not included here to make them happy.”

• Other anti-union committee members said the quiet part out loud, laying bare the fact that this legislation is meant to open the door to crushing public unions in Idaho. “I do believe this is a step in the right direction,” said Rep. Lucas Cayler (R-Caldwell). “… I think that there’s probably some moves to be made in the future with applying a very fair standard and equal application of this bill and this law to all future government employees who fall under a collective bargaining agreement.”  

What the bill’s opponents said: Rep. Lori McCann (R-Lewiston), Rep. Megan Egbert (D-Boise), Rep. Jon Weber (R-Rexburg), Rep. Ann Henderson Haws (D-Boise), Rep. Ben Fuhriman (R-Shelley) and Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) peppered the bill’s sponsor with questions.  

• McCann and Bingham questioned Boyle about the $1.2 million Boyle said would be saved by passing the bill, even though the bill’s fiscal note indicates the legislation won’t raise or lower revenue. Boyle specifically objected to the professional development money offered to all educators in the Boise and Twin Falls school districts and said that money shouldn’t be spent on union dues. “We’re just directing the school districts not to use that money for union activities,” Boyle said.  

• Rep. Weber took issue with outlawing payroll deduction for IEA members because educators, police and firefighters are all paid using taxpayer funding, questioning Chris Cargill of the Mountain States Policy Center after his testimony in favor of the bill. “The amount of political activity that comes from one group is quite different than the amount of political activity that comes from another group,” Cargill said.  

“But, folks and Mr. Cargill,” Weber said, “A tax is a tax is a tax. Doesn’t matter if it’s federal, state or local — your tax is funding emergency services, police, fire, and it’s funding education.”  

• Rep. Fuhriman said he didn’t see any costs associated with payroll deduction and didn’t understand why educators couldn’t decide how to spend their own money out of their own paychecks, as they do with their professional development stipends in districts that receive them.  

“It bothers me that we’re — as a majority body of Republicans who believe in small, limited government and believe in personal rights and freedoms — we’re basically telling employees of schools what they can and cannot do with their money once they get paid. And I have a fundamental problem with that.”

Why Boyle is bringing this up again: Boyle has brought forward some version of HB 745 multiple times through multiple committees, including House Education, House State Affairs, and now House Commerce and Human Resources.  

• Kenny Huston, the government affairs representative for the Idaho AFL-CIO, testified before the committee and questioned why the bill was up for debate again when it had been defeated so many times. “It is true that there have been other bills like this,” Boyle said. “They have passed all the House committees and the House floor.” None of her bills have passed the Senate.  

“Rep. Boyle has attacked educators and IEA through similar legislation many times and through a variety of different committees,” said IEA Political Director Chris Parri. “She’s clearly shopping it around for the result she wants and to avoid the germane committee, the House Education Committee, because she knows it will be rejected there.” 

What IEA is saying: “Anti-union lawmakers are running scared because of IEA’s May Matters campaign, and they’re pulling out the stops so they don’t have to deal with the political consequences of years of terrible legislation,” said IEA Associate Executive Director Matt Compton. “They expect Idaho’s public school educators to be bullied into giving up the district and community relationships they have spent decades building. This is the time to show them what IEA can do.”