It’s Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
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Iowans are worried about food prices. But they’re especially worried that the policies of the Trump administration (namely, his tariffs on foreign goods) will cause prices to rise further.
That’s not some left-leaning think tank study, by the way; that’s according to the latest Iowa Farm Bureau’s latest Food and Farm Index, conducted by the right-of-center Harris Poll.
What they found: 80% of shoppers are concerned about government regulations that increase food costs, with nearly half of consumers, or 47%, very concerned by the proposition. That’s more than double what it was in 2021 (when 21% were “very concerned”) when Biden was president.
And that’s because they’re seeing it happen in real time.
In the last four years, there’s been a 23.6% increase in grocery prices. Trump campaigned on bringing them down. Instead, his tariff costs for Iowa importers increased by $68 million, or 304%, from April 2024 to April 2025, according to a study from the nonprofit Farmers for Free Trade, meaning the price of goods for consumers will go up as well.
The result: More and more Iowans won’t be able to afford food.
And what are our policymakers doing about it?
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Have you noticed prices rising? What are you doing about it—buying cheaper ingredients? Seeing if you qualify for benefits? Yelling at your legislators? Email me.
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER UNITED, WGA East
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Construction worker killed on I-380: The worker, whose name has not yet been released, was killed by a piece of large construction equipment while working at the intersection of Interstate 380 and Wright Brothers Boulevard in Cedar Rapids last week. Construction trades are one of the top 10 deadliest jobs per capita in the US. (KCRG, BLS)
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Union members are 6.4% of Iowa’s workforce, while 8.3% of our state’s workforce are covered under a union contract (right to work). That’s 118,683 workers, according to the Most Unionized Cities in America study.
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Right to Repair gets a win: John Deere wanted a judge to throw out its right-to-repair antitrust case brought by the Federal Trade Commission that alleges Deere forces farmers to rely on Deere’s network of authorized dealers for needed repairs, instead of being allowed to repair themselves. A judge disagreed, saying the trial will go forward, and for now, the Trump administration’s FTC appears willing to continue to pursue it. (Barn Raiser)
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Solidarity for all: Around 6,500 workers at a large General Motors plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, are currently voting on whether to join an independent union. It would be the second GM plant to be unionized in Mexico if they win. Mexican GM workers currently make between $3 and $7 per hour. (Labor Notes)
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Fiverr, Upwork, etc. don’t pay minimum wage: Most of the world’s leading online work platforms—including Fiverr, Upwork, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Freelancer—are failing to uphold even the most basic labor standards, like paying below minimum wage, paying in gift cards, and sometimes failing to pay at all, according to a new study from The Fairwork Project and the University of Oxford.
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Planned Parenthood union members on clinic closures: “When I started 18 years ago, we had 17 clinics in Iowa. After these closures, we will be down to two,” said Megan Amato, a nurse at Planned Parenthood North Central States and member of the SEIU Healthcare union, in a press release after the closures were announced. “At one point, Iowa was a pioneer for abortion access, including being the first state to use telemedicine for abortion care, so it is sad we’ve reached this point.”
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Judge stops Trump from busting federal workers’ unions: Six unions sued President Trump over an executive order that would have allowed 21 federal agencies to ignore collective bargaining agreements, and got a judge to block Trump’s order this week, in what one union president called a “resounding rejection of the Trump administration’s authoritarian tactics.” (The Hill)
- Are you a Starbucks worker? In the face of continued immigration raids on workplaces across the country, the Starbucks Workers United union is hosting a free Know Your Workplace Rights training tomorrow (and it’s open to nonunion workers too). Register here.
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Energy assistance could be cut: The Trump administration’s proposed budget includes eliminating funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps 96,000 Iowans pay their winter heating bills every year. (Radio Iowa)
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Working on a union: 15 carpenter craft employees and apprentices at Sioux City Engineering in Sioux City filed on June 10 to vote on whether to be represented by North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.
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Voting on a union: 200 health care workers at two Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center facilities in West Burlington will vote July 1-2 on whether to remain in their Communication Workers of America union.
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Won their union: 21 simulator subject matter experts at CymSTAR in Des Moines won, 12-2, the right to be represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Lodge 6.
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Lutheran Services of Iowa in Des Moines is laying off one worker by Friday.
- Accelerate 360 Distribution in nearby Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is laying off 35 workers by Saturday. Read more here.
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Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 41 workers by Sunday, and 24 workers by July 14.
- ASM Global in Dubuque is laying off 160 workers by Monday. Read more here.
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Career Systems Development Corporation in Wapello is closing and laying off 92 workers by Monday.
- Forte Openings Solutions in Mason City is closing and laying off 93 workers at two locations by Monday. Read more here.
- Sodexo in Decorah is closing and laying off 130 workers by Monday. Read more here.
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Orient-Macksburg Community School District in Orient is closing and laying off 36 workers by Tuesday. Read more here.
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US Cellular is laying off 497 workers in several cities by July 1: Eight workers in Altoona; nine in Ames; seven in Ankeny; eight in Cedar Falls; 183 at their call center in Cedar Rapids, plus another 31 at three Cedar Rapids locations; seven in Clinton; 10 in Coralville; six in Council Bluffs; nine in Creston; 17 at two locations in Davenport; seven in Decorah; 11 in Des Moines; 18 in Dubuque; 10 in Fort Dodge; six in Indianola; eight in Iowa City; 39 in Johnston; nine in Keokuk; six in Knoxville; six in Manchester; seven in Marshalltown; nine in Mason City; eight in Muscatine; 15 in Ottumwa; five in Sioux City; 11 in Waterloo; 13 in West Burlington; and 14 at two locations in West Des Moines. Read more here.
- Collins Aerospace is laying off 131 workers at two locations by July 18: 102 workers in Cedar Rapids and 29 workers in Decorah. Read more here.
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Main Street Manor in Swea City is closing and laying off 13 workers by July 23.
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Trump’s “big beautiful bill” would decimate rural health care centers so severely that even Republicans are mad:
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said it would be “potentially really bad for rural hospitals,” while Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) said it’s “going to hurt our rural hospitals and hurt them in a big way.”
We also talked about rural health care in Iowa in this week’s podcast.
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