It’s Thursday, July 24, 2025.
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As part of our Cancer in Iowa series, Zachary and I are looking for Iowans who have concerns that the chemicals, processes, or other things in your workplace may be cancer-causing—or have already caused cancer in them or a loved one. Click here to tell us more about that; thanks.
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As Starbucks workers unionize across the country, Iowa has seen just three stores unionize, all in Eastern Iowa:
Now, there could be a Central Iowa store joining them—and the first in Iowa’s capital.
Workers at the Starbucks on Merle Hay Road in Des Moines are voting next month on whether to be represented by Starbucks Workers United (SBWU), which represents thousands of workers at hundreds of stores across the US. The company agreed to start bargaining with SBWU in March of 2024, though no agreement has yet been reached.
I spoke this week with Jacob Scroggins (pictured below from our video call), a shift supervisor at the store who has led the effort to unionize his store with the help of Iowa’s other unionized Starbucks workers.
It all started, he says, when he was scheduled “open to close on Christmas Day.”
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“This was maybe a month into me being a shift supervisor,” Scroggins said. “I received very little training … I was already very much burnt out.”
Yet he wasn’t quite certain he wanted to start a union—he said he had “a lot of fear” given the company’s “general anti-union propaganda and tactics.” Even though he wasn’t making much money, he still was worried he was risking his job.
But Scroggins noticed he wasn’t the only one hitting a breaking point. As part of the company’s new dress code, another coworker was told to remove her face piercing; as Scroggins put it, workers felt like they were “being told to scale back who you are.”
So he emailed SBWU asking for more information. In March, he heard from a friend at the unionized Iowa City Starbucks, asking him what he needed.
That finally kickstarted the effort—17 full- and part-time baristas, along with shift supervisors like Scroggins, filed a petition to unionize June 27, and are voting Aug. 7.
If successful, they’ll be the fourth unionized Starbucks in Iowa. And Scroggins is glad he finally took the leap.
“I mean, corporate is scary,” he said. “But this—the act of organizing and getting everyone together for this cause of supporting ourselves and letting our voices be heard—has genuinely already changed my life and the life of the baristas at the store.”
To highlight their effort and boost morale, workers are holding a “sip-in” this Saturday (July 25) from 8-10 a.m.
“Come in, enjoy some coffee, chat with other union workers, chat with us—we are talkers, to say the least,” Scroggins said. “Just stand in solidarity.”
Have thoughts? Email me.
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER UNITED, WGA East
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Iowa’s farmers are left with rising bills and few guarantees as President Donald Trump’s second trade war brews—creating a storm of financial pressure in the heart of the state’s farm economy that could ripple beyond 2025, especially if global partners retaliate and fragile trade truces unravel. Yet some farmers still have faith it will ultimately work out, despite farm bankruptcies on the rise and worries about USDA cuts. (The Gazette, Reddit, Farm Policy News, Iowa Capital Dispatch)
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200 JBS Ottumwa workers had their visas revoked, amounting to 10% of the plant’s workers. It comes after Trump’s Department of Homeland Security revoked temporary protected status for residents of several countries, including Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. JBS sent notices to the affected workers, telling them they were losing their jobs and had to leave the country immediately. “Keep those people in our prayers,” said Ottumwa Mayor Rick Johnson. (Sentient)
- No teachers available: Iowa has such a shortage of teachers—in areas ranging from math to science to music to art to Spanish to P.E.—that many districts are now forced to contract with companies to provide classes online, the Iowa Department of Education said. (IPR)
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“The U.S. Mail is not for sale:” That’s the message the American Postal Workers Union is telling Iowans to tell our members of Congress, as Trump mulls over whether to privatize the US Postal Service. Cuts would hit rural areas the hardest. “Our economy isn’t delivering for the middle class anymore,” said gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand. (Iowa Capital Dispatch, IPR)
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Today marks 16 years without an increase in the federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour, and which Iowa lawmakers have refused to raise—even though that’s contributed to the lowest average wages in the Midwest and 44th-worst in the nation. (Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, Des Moines Register)
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$3.394 trillion will be added to the country’s deficit, and 10 million Americans will lose their health care, under Trump’s budget bill, the Congressional Budget Office predicts. And even if you’re not losing your health insurance, it’s expected to rise by 75% next year. (Iowa Capital Dispatch, IPR)
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Truckers, environmentalists join up to ask for better safety: Drivers have described seeing waste marked flammable or radioactive being pumped out of HAZMAT-marked tanks and loaded onto regular, unmarked trucks, endangering them and the communities they drive through—all, allegedly, just to save labor costs. (In These Times)
- Black women have one of the highest unemployment rates of any demographic, something that’s been exacerbated by the recent Trump (and Reynolds) administration’s purging of “diversity” positions. (Black Iowa News)
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Iowans need to make $20 per hour to afford rent on the average two-bedroom apartment, the National Low Income Housing Coalition found in a new report. That’s the equivalent of working three full-time minimum-wage jobs, or 24 hours a day. But sure, there’s no affordable housing crisis! (IPR)
- USW Local 444 workers rallied to kick off contract negotiations at Henniges Automotive in Keokuk last week. Workers are asking for no changes to their health insurance, as they’re worried about costs rising. (Daily Gate City)
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Digital workplace surveillance, or “bossware,” is becoming more prevalent. But when it goes wrong, workers often have little recourse. (National Employment Law Project)
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Contract workers don’t need the Independent Retirement Fairness Act—they need to stop being misclassified as independent contractors by companies trying to save a buck, argues the Economic Policy Institute. (EPI)
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Voting on a union: Seventeen full- and part-time baristas and shift supervisors at a Starbucks in Des Moines vote Aug. 7 on whether to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. Seventeen linemen, apprentice linemen, line foremen and member service technicians with Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative in Corning vote Aug. 12 on whether to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 55.
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- Whirlpool Corporation in Amana is laying off 250 workers by Wednesday.
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American Contract Systems in Grimes is closing and laying off 62 workers by July 31. Read more here.
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Lennox Industries in Marshalltown is laying off 62 workers by Aug. 1. The company previously laid off 114 workers in 2023.
- US Cellular in Cedar Rapids is laying off 30 workers by Aug. 1.
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The Mutual Group in West Des Moines is laying off 34 workers by Aug. 8.
- Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 35 workers by Aug. 10, 35 workers by Aug. 24, 11 workers by Sept. 8, and 44 workers by Sept. 22.
- Southeast Service Corporation in Mount Vernon is laying off 31 workers by Aug. 11.
- Advanced Drainage Systems in Waterloo is closing and laying off 71 employees by Aug. 17. Read more here.
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