1. It shall be unlawful for any public employee or any employee organization, directly or indirectly, to induce, instigate, encourage, authorize, ratify, or participate in a strike against any public employer.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 20.12

  • Employee organization: means an organization of any kind in which public employees participate and which exists for the primary purpose of representing employees in their employment relations. See Iowa Code 20.3
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • Public employee: means any individual employed by a public employer, except individuals exempted under the provisions of section 20. See Iowa Code 20.3
  • Public employer: means the state of Iowa, its boards, commissions, agencies, departments, and its political subdivisions including school districts and other special purpose districts. See Iowa Code 20.3
  • Strike: means a public employee's refusal, in concerted action with others, to report to duty, or a willful absence from the employee's position, or a stoppage of work by the employee, or the employee's abstinence in whole or in part from the full, faithful, and proper performance of the duties of employment, for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges, or obligations of public employment. See Iowa Code 20.3
 2. It shall be unlawful for any public employer to authorize, consent to, or condone a strike; or to pay or agree to pay any public employee for any day in which the employee participates in a strike; or to pay or agree to pay any increase in compensation or benefits to any public employee in response to or as a result of any strike or any act which violates subsection 1. It shall be unlawful for any official, director, or representative of any public employer to authorize, ratify, or participate in any violation of this subsection. Nothing in this subsection shall prevent new or renewed bargaining and agreement within the scope of negotiations as defined by this chapter, at any time after such violation of subsection 1 has ceased; but it shall be unlawful for any public employer or employee organization to bargain at any time regarding suspension or modification of any penalty provided in this section or regarding any request by the public employer to a court for such suspension or modification.
 3. In the event of any violation or imminently threatened violation of subsection 1 or 2, any citizen domiciled within the jurisdictional boundaries of the public employer may petition the district court for the county in which the violation occurs or the district court for Polk county for an injunction restraining such violation or imminently threatened violation. Rules of civil procedure 1.1501 to 1.1511 regarding injunctions shall apply. However, the court shall grant a temporary injunction if it appears to the court that a violation has occurred or is imminently threatened; the plaintiff need not show that the violation or threatened violation would greatly or irreparably injure the plaintiff; and no bond shall be required of the plaintiff unless the court determines that a bond is necessary in the public interest. Failure to comply with any temporary or permanent injunction granted pursuant to this section shall constitute a contempt punishable pursuant to chapter 665. The punishment shall not exceed five hundred dollars for an individual, or ten thousand dollars for an employee organization or public employer, for each day during which the failure to comply continues, or imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, or both such fine and imprisonment. An individual or an employee organization which makes an active good faith effort to comply fully with the injunction shall not be deemed to be in contempt.
 4. If a public employee is held to be in contempt of court for failure to comply with an injunction pursuant to this section, or is convicted of violating this section, the employee shall be ineligible for any employment by the same public employer for a period of twelve months. The employee’s public employer shall immediately discharge the employee, but upon the employee’s request the court shall stay the discharge to permit further judicial proceedings.
 5. If an employee organization or any of its officers is held to be in contempt of court for failure to comply with an injunction pursuant to this section, or is convicted of violating this section, the employee organization shall be immediately decertified, shall cease to represent the bargaining unit, and may again be certified only after twenty-four months have elapsed from the effective date of decertification and only if a new petition for certification pursuant to section 20.14 is filed and a new certification election pursuant to section 20.15 is held. The penalties provided in this section may be suspended or modified by the court, but only upon request of the public employer and only if the court determines the suspension or modification is in the public interest.
 6. Each of the remedies and penalties provided by this section is separate and several, and is in addition to any other legal or equitable remedy or penalty.
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