We knew this Southeast Iowa factory was closing. Now we know when layoffs are happening—and how many workers will be affected.
(Watch this story on YouTube.)
This week, Case New Holland filed notice that 209 workers will be laid off in Burlington.
Instead of one big layoff, the company is using what’s called a “rolling layoff.” That’s where companies cut a few workers at a time, instead of one big layoff. (More about that in the video below.)
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At CNH, rolling layoffs will begin with seven workers on March 23. More will follow in April, with a final round of layoffs affecting 24 workers on May 29.
In total: 209 CNH employees will be out of work.
The company, which makes billions of dollars in revenue each quarter—and has an Italian billionaire owner—announced the plant’s closure in November, saying it would save CNH just $17 million.
Officials at United Auto Workers, which represents CNH workers in Burlington, slammed the company for that decision.
UAW President Shawn Fain called the decision “an economic bomb on the Burlington community.”
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He added, “I’m sick and tired of seeing the same scenario play out in America over and over again because of corporate greed.”
Workers say the plant was integral to Burlington, and its closure would be “devastating” for the community.
CNH says demand for its equipment dropped, leading to worker cuts. But Burlington’s mayor said the company could’ve made different products at the plant instead.
“Everybody was trying to keep them here,” Burlington Mayor Jon Billups told Iowa Public Radio this week, noting the city and state had given millions of dollars to CNH over the years. “It’s just heartbreaking for the families that are going to be affected.”
This week, UAW Local 807 President Marcques Derby said the company’s decision to close the 89-year-old plant doesn’t erase, quote, “the value of the work performed here and the people who performed it.”
Are you a past or present CNH worker? Share your thoughts.
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Watch the latest edition of Clocked In on:
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER United (WGA East)
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The economy is great again? That’s what US Rep. Ashley Hinson, running for US Senate, wrote in a Des Moines Register opinion piece this week in advance of President Donald Trump‘s speech, where he tried saying the same thing while he was in Clive Tuesday. LOL, not even, retorted Iowa Farmers Union president Aaron Lehman, while columnist Ed Tibbetts called it “nonsense.” Second District congressional candidate Clint Twedt-Ball agreed. “This administration has put in place chaotic, across-the-board tariffs that have raised prices and made it harder for farmers to sell their crops,” Twedt-Ball said.
- Did Trump solve “affordability?” Most Americans don’t think so, according to a recent poll.
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Tax-free savings accounts will solve it? Hinson, meanwhile, is penning bills to expand tax-free savings accounts, which she thinks will solve everything from childcare affordability to our workforce issues. Except those only help when you have money to actually save. “The inability of many Americans to save stems from structural challenges in the economy that are stagnating the wages of working people, not the lack of a tax breaks that reward savings,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy wrote in 2018.
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Breaking their silence: More than 60 Minnesota companies jointly penned a letter “calling for an immediate deescalation of tensions” as ICE and Border Patrol agents continue to wreak havoc on the Minneapolis–St. Paul metro. But it wasn’t received well. “To call it milquetoast is charitable,” wrote Minnesota native Justin Stofferahn. How business owners could actually help? Becoming 4th Amendment worksites.
- Union endorsements: Local 125 Plumbers and Pipefitters endorsed Sen. Zach Wahls for US Senate this week. “He stands with working people, supports strong apprenticeship programs and fair wages, and he’s not afraid to take on corporate special interests that try to undercut our jobs,” said Mike Sadler, the local’s business manager.
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The opposite of solidarity: Alex Pretti, the latest observer gunned down by federal agents in Minneapolis, and the federal agent who killed him belonged to the same union.
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Year-round E15 is only a short-term solution for Iowa’s corn growers, who need new markets if they’re going to survive, a new study finds.
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NIOSH restored, thanks to lawsuit: The Trump administration said it will reopen the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and rehire all workers laid off, according to the International Association of Machinists, which had sued to reverse the cuts.
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Do you know about your Work Number? It’s how bosses are verifying your work history—yet it can be incomplete or wrong.
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AI=revolution? That’s the warning the AFL-CIO gave to world leaders last week, if they allow artificial intelligence to take a large portion of jobs away from people.
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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 last month; there is still no vote total posted to the NLRB website as of this writing. (Here’s why things may be backed up.)
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10 Roads Express/10 Roads Service in Carter Lake is closing and laying off 42 workers by Friday.
- DRT in Carter Lake is closing and laying off 26 workers by Friday.
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CRST Expedited in Cedar Rapids is laying off 30 workers by Sunday.
- Medtec/CQ Medical in Orange City is closing and laying off 33 workers by Feb. 6.
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Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 25 workers by Feb. 6, and 33 workers by Mar. 20. Read more here.
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Winnebago Industries in Charles City is closing and laying off its remaining 23 workers by Feb. 20.
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MercyOne in Ottumwa is closing and laying off 40 workers by Feb. 27. Read more here.
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There are two kinds of policing, Matt Stoller writes: White-collar—investigations into companies and crimes from the rich—and blue-collar, or crimes committed by working folks.
One of them (I bet you can guess which one) is being massively funded by the government, while the other is being starved under the guise of “efficiency.”
“In essence,” Stoller writes, “there is now a zone of elite impunity for the Jeff Epstein class, but poorer Americans are increasingly subject to a host of restrictions and state violence.”
Read his argument, then tell me: How do we fix it?
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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Amie Rivers. It was edited by Paula Solis.
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