UnityPoint nurses likely win union vote: Iowa Worker’s Almanac

Iowa Worker’s Almanac news and layoffs for Dec. 18, 2025:

• UnityPoint nurses likely win union: With a vote of 871-666, despite 251 ballots being challenged, the math is mathing in favor of the 1,776 Des Moines-based nurses getting to unionize with Teamsters. “Exhausted but EXCITED and THRILLED!” overnight recovery nurse Dawn Balek texted me the day after the vote. The union says those ballots are for workers hired after the Aug. 13 election cut-off date, which should not count; UnityPoint is arguing to the National Labor Relations Board that they should.

• Union endorsements: The Communication Workers of America Local 7102 in Des Moines endorsed West Des Moines City Council member Renee Hardman for Iowa Senate District 16. The special election will be held Dec. 30.
• Starbucks strike at one month: Workers unionized with Starbucks Workers United have been on an escalating strike—adding new stores to the strike list each week—for one month now. Two of Iowa’s four unionized stores, in Des Moines and Iowa City, joined Dec. 4.
  
  
• Iowa farmers say ending ACA tax credits will hurt farm economies. Around 27% of farmers in the US get insurance from the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, and Iowa farmers warned their premiums will rise by thousands of dollars if enhanced tax credits aren’t extended. And proposals by Republicans have so far seemed geared toward making the ACA worse.

• Tomorrow is the last day to apply for $12 billion in bailout money for row crop farmers hit hard by President Donald Trump’s misguided trade wars, which economists estimate have cost farmers $55 billion.
• The US House says Trump can’t take away collective bargaining: The Protect America’s Workforce Act, which brings back collective bargaining at the federal level that Trump tried to eliminate via executive order, passed the House 231-195—including “yes” votes from two of Iowa’s four Republican congress members (Miller-Meeks and Nunn). Unions are urging the Senate to pass it; you can sign your name as a supporter here.
• What’s not helping the nurse shortage: Limiting how much prospective nurses can borrow on their student loans to get an advanced degree because the administration doesn’t consider such nurses “professional.”
  
  
• Integrated DNA Technologies layoff coming: The Coralville company said it would be laying off 4.7% of its workers, which a reader last week told me would amount to 136 people laid off. IDT had no immediate timeline for the layoff, and there was no WARN Act notification as of this writing.

• Voting on a union: Forty full- and part-time drivers and monitors at Durham School Services in Urbandale voted on whether to unionize with Teamsters Local 90 on Tuesday; no vote total was posted to the NLRB website as of this writing.

Upcoming layoffs:

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

• Networking Imaging Solutions in North Liberty is closing and laying off 140 workers by today. Read more here.
• Superior Tube Products in Davenport is closing and laying off 26 workers by Friday. Read more here.
• Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 63 workers by Dec. 26, 26 by Jan. 2, 14 by Jan. 23, and 25 by Feb. 6.
• Bauer Built Manufacturing in Paton is closing and laying off 62 workers by Dec. 31. The company says “a large majority” of workers will be offered jobs with Kloeckner Metals Corporation, which bought Bauer. 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.