Labor Leader: Branstad operates secret blacklist
The president of Iowa?s largest public employees union recently accused the state?s executive branch of indiscriminately updating and consulting a ?blacklist? of fired employees to prevent them from becoming employed of the state again. The Associated Press reported earlier this week that 1,471 people were banned from returning to employment with Iowa and questioned the legality of the practice without any boundaries or regulations on its use. Within the past three years, the Governor?s administration has added former employees at a rate more than three times that of previous administrations, about 250 people in less than three years. The current administration called the union?s attack ?unfortunate and unsurprising? and called for legislation allowing the disclosure of public employee infractions so that the administration could show the reasons that some former employees have been blacklisted.
See "Labor Leader: Branstad operates secret blacklist", Ryan J. Foley, Des Moines Register, April 1, 2014