Amie Rivers

Through days topping 90 degrees with no shade and days at 11 degrees below zero coupled with dangerous wind chills, unionized workers in Cedar Rapids held the line for nearly six months despite the pressures of being out of work. On Sunday, after 175 days on the picket line, it all paid off. Eighty-eight workers…

Workers who have been on strike since last summer at an ingredient and starch manufacturer in Cedar Rapids will be voting on a potential contract this weekend. The contract’s details were slowly hammered out since around 116 workers at Ingredion—organized with the Bakers, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 100-G union—began striking Aug. 1,…

Faculty at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) say their pay hasn’t kept up with inflation for years, and are asking the Iowa Board of Regents for nearly 10% raises to make up for it. United Faculty UNI, which represents around 500 professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and adjunct professors at the Regents university in…

Gov. Kim Reynolds says her 2017 law gutting collective bargaining for many state and local workers was “badly needed” and “Iowans are better for it.” But advocates for those workers say the opposite has been true in the past six years, with fewer employees handling even more work than before and paltry annual raises of…

An Iowa City company started during the pandemic as the “last mile” delivery service for Amazon will close next month. GRIT Delivers LLC, which delivered Amazon packages in Amazon-branded delivery vehicles to the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area, notified the state it would close on Feb. 5 and lay off 62 workers. The company’s website had…

A manufacturing plant and major employer in northeast Iowa will close next month, leaving 45 workers out of a job. Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG), an Ohio-based international company that supplies components for the commercial vehicle market, announced in October it would shutter its Monona plant. Its final day is Feb. 3, according to Iowa’s Worker…

Iowa workers on strike since May have rejected the latest offer from Case-New Holland International to return to work, saying the company wasn’t even offering what replacement workers are currently making. The strike of more than 1,000 workers involves United Auto Workers (UAW) members at Case-New Holland International (CNHi) plants, about 400 of which are…

As Iowa lawmakers kick off the 2023 session today, advocates for Iowa’s working people worry majority Republicans will continue to pass more legislation that will hurt working families. “I just hope there aren’t any more economic attacks,” said Felicia Hilton, political director of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters. “It’s really impacting families.”…

A facility specifically for those with dementia will close Friday, while an assisted living facility associated with it is set to close next month, leaving 26 residents and their families with one less option and 48 workers out of a job. The board of Country Winds Manor, which owns the two facilities in the Cresco…