Iowa Worker’s Almanac: Working class news and upcoming layoffs, Aug. 21

• Muscatine construction worker and victim of crime jailed: Jesús Hernández was shot when two people tried stealing his car. After a hospital stay, he went to pick up his car—and immigration enforcement officials detained him for being undocumented. Congress created a U-visa that protects victims of crime who assist in prosecutions, but so far the county attorney has refused to sign the certification, despite protests from the community. (IPR) 
• Labor Day in Iowa: Monday, Sept. 1, is Labor Day in the US, and the Iowa Federation of Labor has a listing of picnics and parades across Iowa here. But it’ll be more than that this year, as hundreds of protests are planned simultaneously for the holiday, including from May Day Strong. 
• More John Deere layoffs are coming, including 115 workers at Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois, by Aug. 29; 71 workers at the Foundry in Waterloo by Sept. 19; and 52 at Seeding and Cylinder in Moline, Illinois, by Sept. 26. The company blamed “decreased demand and lower order volumes” caused by “the struggling ag economy.” Deere estimates it has lost $300 million due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs so far this year. (KCRG, The New Republic) 
• Deporting the meatpacking workforce: Canceling work visas and ordering workers to self-deport won’t just affect JBS in Ottumwa; it “could be just the start of a wave of job losses,” with thousands more Iowans at risk. Don’t worry about the meatpacking companies, though; they’ve gotten less federal oversight on safety and sped up the lines. (Des Moines Register) 
• There are 3,800 open positions at Iowa schools, per the Teach Iowa website. Teaching resource website Fullmind called it “significant.” “What is driving the current situation is a large number of teachers quitting and few qualified applicants for available vacant positions,” the site said. 
• Illinois legislation to protect workers: Describing Trump’s order eliminating collective bargaining as “an assault on labor,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a package of legislation that preserves gains won by workers, regardless of what the federal government does in the future. (My Stateline)
• They weren’t allowed to strike. They went on strike anyway, and won: Around 10,000 flight attendants working for Air Canada went on strike Saturday, saying they were regularly not paid for work performed while planes were on the ground. They stood their ground—and grounded all flights—until Tuesday, winning a tentative agreement that ends such unpaid work. (IPR) 
• Will Social Security get to 100? This month marks 90 years since the signing of the Social Security Act, and Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has actually sped up the timeline for when full benefits will no longer be paid out—now by 2032, unless Congress acts. (Iowa Capital Dispatch) 
• Won a union: Seventeen linemen, apprentice linemen, line foremen and member service technicians with Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative in Corning voted 17-0 to unionize with the IBEW Local 55.
• Voting on a union: Twenty-four x-ray radiographers and lead workers with American Ordnance in Middletown vote Sept. 17 on whether to unionize with IAM Local 1010.
• Starting up a union: Fifty full- and part-time workers at River Hills Community Health Center in Ottumwa refiled a petition to unionize Aug. 8 with River Hills United/Teamsters Local 90.
• The Iowa State Fair is over, but if you missed the first year of the Lineman Rodeo put on by IBEW Local 55, check out the photos here or the video from Iowa PBS 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 35 workers by Sunday, 11 workers by Sept. 8, 44 workers by Sept. 22, 10 workers by Oct. 4, and 10 workers by Oct. 18.
• FedEx is laying off 168 workers at three locations by Sept. 1: 57 workers in Cedar Rapids, 84 workers in Des Moines, and 27 workers in Dubuque. Read more here.
• Winnebago Industries is closing and laying off 18 workers in Charles City and 77 workers in Waverly by Sept. 8, and laying off another 26 workers in Charles City by Dec. 12. Read more here.
• TreeHouse Foods in New Hampton is closing and laying off 48 workers by Sept. 12. Read more here.