Iowa Worker’s Almanac: Layoffs and news briefs for Nov. 14, 2025

News for the Iowa working class for Nov. 14, 2025:

• Rural hospitals? Never heard of her: At her first in-person town hall in more than a year, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks told Iowans in Keosauqua on Monday she thinks she “strengthened and preserved Medicaid” when she voted to approve President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill—despite attendees pointing out that rural Iowa hospitals with large numbers of patients on Medicaid are likely to close as a result of the bill’s cuts. (Miller-Meeks also told the crowd she had “always supported releasing the Epstein files,” but she then did not vote to do so on Wednesday.)
• Community college settles 3rd human trafficking case: Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City agreed to a third settlement involving human trafficking of international students—this time, in a case involving 21 students. This one was settled for $2.5 million, which brings the total to nearly $8 million, all while the college denies the allegation that it engaged in human trafficking when it recruited students to come to the college and forced them to work at meatpacking plants.
  
  
• Did you detassel corn as a teenager? That quintessential Iowa teen job is increasingly being outsourced by the seed companies to migrant laborers instead, according to Iowa Workforce Development data.
  
  
• Food drive for workers: As the shutdown continues (as of this writing), the Quad City Federation of Labor and AFGE 2119 is holding food and hygiene drives to help government and essential workers. Drop-offs are Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Learn more here.

• Union endorsements: The UAW announced this week its endorsement of Rob Sand for governor. “We’re supporting candidates like Rob Sand who’ve proven they can stand up to corporate America,” said UAW Region 4 Director Brandon Campbell. “Our members, their families, and their neighbors will be sending a clear message to the billionaire class with Rob’s election to the governorship: Iowa is not for sale.” // United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1846 this week endorsed Zach Wahls for US Senate, as well as Ironworkers Local 111. “Zach Wahls has always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with working people,” said Roger Kail, President of UFCW Local 1846. “He’s fought to raise wages, lower costs, and protect our benefits—and he’s not afraid to take on the corporate special interests that put profits ahead of people.” “He understands the challenges our members and hardworking Iowans face,” said Mike Olvera, Business Manager for Ironworkers Local 111.

• Prices are ‘way down,’ Trump is telling us. But I’ve been to a grocery store. I assume you have, too.
  
  
• The housing market is so crappy that the median age of new homebuyers is basically my age.
• Shutdown over, union votes coming back: The National Labor Relations Board website database is finally back online, but so far a postponed UnityPoint vote has not been rescheduled among health care professionals at four Des Moines hospitals.
• Don’t cross the Starbucks picket lines: Starbucks Workers United, which has thousands of members across the country, voted to strike Nov. 13—the company’s “Red Cup Day”—because the company continues to refuse to bargain a contract with its thousands of unionized employees. The picket lines aren’t at every Starbucks—there aren’t any in Iowa, despite there being four unionized Starbucks stores—but the strike involves the whole chain. Learn more about workers’ demands, sign a pledge to boycott Starbucks until the strike is over (don’t be a scab!), and donate to the strike fund here.

Upcoming layoffs:

All information taken from Iowa Workforce Development’s WARN Act website. Read WARN Act and Iowa WARN Act criteria here.

• Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 12 workers by Friday, 23 workers by Nov. 28, one worker by Dec. 12, 63 workers by Dec. 26, and 26 by Jan. 2.
• BHFO in Cedar Rapids is closing and laying off 46 workers by Nov. 26. Read more here.
• Ceilley Pallets in Waterloo is closing and laying off 12 workers by Nov. 27. Read more here.
• Mason City Clinic in Mason City is laying off 147 workers by Dec. 31. Read more about a potential WARN Act violation here.
• RELCO in Cedar Rapids is closing and laying off 34 workers by Dec. 31. Read more here.

• RTX in Cedar Rapids is laying off three workers by Dec. 31.
• Toyota Financial Services in Cedar Rapids is closing and laying off 54 workers by Dec. 31. Read more here.