WATERLOO - The United Auto Workers Local 838 union hall in Waterloo and other UAW facilities around the state have been closed to local Democratic Party activities for months due to the union's dissatisfaction with an inability of legislative Democrats to pass pro-union "fair share" legislation earlier this year

Dennis Williams, director of UAW Region 4 based Lincolnshire, Ill., said the union members also have ceased contributions to the Iowa Democratic Party.

"Within our leadership in the state of Iowa, about 98 percent is very upset with the Democratic Party," Williams said.

However, Williams said UAW regional officials want to meet with some UAW-retiree Iowa legislators in hopes of resolving the matter. Two are from the Cedar Valley - State Sen. Bill Dotzler of Waterloo and State Rep. Bob Kressig of Cedar Falls.

Dotzler, who floor managed an ill-fated "fair share" bill in the Senate, looks forward to meeting with UAW officials. "I know they're frustrated, but they're pointing fingers at the wrong people," he said.

"It's a misunderstanding that is pretty frustrating, and I hope will get worked out in the near future, and I'm confident it will," Dotzler said. "All you have to do is look at the record Democrats have for standing up for working men and women."

Williams said legislative majority Democrats did not follow through on promises made to union officials on "fair share" legislation, which would have helped eliminate the practice of some workers not paying their fair share of fees to the union to cover the cost of negotiating collective bargaining agreements on their behalf with their employers.

In Iowa, Williams said, about 10 percent of workers who receive the wages and benefits of a UAW-negotiated contract don't pay their share of the costs. Such individuals are known to paying union members as "free riders." Currently, Dotzler and UAW officials said, state law prevents fair share provisions from being negotiated in labor agreements. UAW Local 838, with more than 2,700 active members, most of them John Deere workers, is the largest UAW local in Iowa

A "fair share" bill which applied only to public-sector government employees passed the Iowa Senate, but never made it to the House floor for a vote. Dotzler and other legislative leaders said it lacked the votes in the House to be approved, under a barrage of criticism from pro-business groups and others concerned that it would end Iowa's status as a "right to work" or "open shop" state, where union membership is not required for employment.

Williams said Democrats seized on the "fair share" issue to win union support as they took control of the Iowa Legislature for the first time in 42 years in last November's general election.

"During the last election cycle the state Senate president (Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, and others came to me, and to other UAW officials in the state of Iowa, and said one of their goals was to get fair share legislation passed," Williams said. "Many state representatives went around the state proclaiming that as their goal…It was not the UAW's demand. It was their words.

"We, of course, all believe in fair share," Williams said. "They did not come through with their commitments to our members, our leadership in the state. They backed out of their word. Our members took the action that they would not give the Democratic Party money in the state of Iowa, nor would they allow the party to use their union halls until the leadership of the Democratic Party lived up to their commitments."

Gronstal said he was aware of the UAW reprisals, but said, "At the end of every session, we have some people who are happy with what we've done and some that aren't happy. When I was first elected leader back in 1997, I learned that if I start looking back over my shoulder, all I'd get was a crick in my neck. We just try to do what's best for Iowa."

The UAW halls are open to activities of Democratic presidential candidates, members of Congress and Gov. Chet Culver, Williams said.

"We are not opposed to the practices of the Democratic Party at all," Williams said. "The vast majority of our members are Democrats," or independents. "We've never been anti-Democratic Party.

"The UAW did not make this an issue. The Democratic Party made this an issue," Williams said. "We're going to support those who support us."

Williams said he's asked assistant regional director Dennis Kinard, a former UAW Local 838 shop chairman and Waterloo international representative, to meet with the UAW members in the Legislature - Dotzler, Kressig and State Sen. Tom Courtney of Burlington.

"We've had ongoing relations with these three (union) brothers for a long, long time," Williams said. "It's time for them to choose what approach they want to take. Then we'll decide what approach we're going to take. Hopefully, we can work this out."

Kressig said he would have supported the Senate-passed fair share bill had it been brought to a vote in the House.

"There's disappointment over the fair share," Kressig said. "Sen. Dotzler's trying to work through that situation, and I hope it changes. When relationships have difficulties, you try to sit down and talk about that, so, hopefully, we can do that."

Dotzler said the fair share is one of those emotional, divisive "wedge" issues which can cause hard feelings and complicate progress on other issues.

"I'm not going to burn up a lot of energy on this," Dotzler said. "I'm happy to vote for it. I ran the bill in the Senate and I'd be more than happy to do that again. But I've got other priorities out there…We have other issues in Iowa that are going to affect the work force far more," such as making sure workers "have the skill sets to match the jobs of the 21st century."

"It isn't the party's fault, necessarily," Black Hawk County Democrats vice chairman Michael Blackwell said, but added, "there's a long history of mutual support" between unions and Democrats, "so it kind of bucks that history for fair share not to have been supported."

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com.