Amie here. The Iowa DOGE task force wants to cut IPERS for new hires, the public employee retirement system that thousands of teachers, corrections officers, and more rely on to get them through their golden years.
This does not sit well with those workers, the unions they’re covered by, or young folks thinking about a government job. Some on Iowa Reddit (with 3,000 upvotes in three days) are even calling for a boycott of Fareway, whose CEO is on the Iowa DOGE taskforce.
“Police officers, firefighters, teachers, plow drivers, and more paid into IPERS and should be thanked for their service. They take salaries lower than typical private sector salaries, some because of the promise of IPERS,” said Rob Sand, a Democratic candidate for governor. “Weakening IPERS will stop many people from taking public service jobs, leaving the public worse off and more key roles unfilled.”
Iowa Republicans quickly came out and said, oh no, we don’t think we’ll do that. (Of course, we Iowans take them at their word when it comes to worker rights, don’t we?)
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Is this a surprising suggestion? It is not. It’s just one more slap in the face of Iowa’s public workers:
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Now, the federal government under President Donald Trump is getting in on this, too.
Besides the massive layoffs of federal workers, the remaining ones are seeing their bargaining rights disappearing.
After Trump declared via executive order that the government would no longer recognize federal unions, the Veterans Administration announced it would terminate its contracts with unions, which is expected to affect more than 377,000 workers across the country. The Environmental Protection Agency followed suit.
If all departments end up caving to the order, it could affect contracts won by two-thirds of federal workers—and the nearly 10,000 Iowans who are federal workers, many of them VA employees, will be affected.
Are you a federal worker? What do you think? Email me.
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER United (WGA East)
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Fox guarding the henhouse: A former Tyson executive now oversees the safety of the US meat supply. (Sentient Media)
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Designed to discriminate: By gutting the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Trump is making it easier for federal contractors to discriminate—all underwritten by your tax dollars. (EPI)
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Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Nepalese workers can stay, for now, after a judge halted Trump’s order to end Temporary Protective Status for people from those countries. No word if JBS is reinstating the 200 workers they fired as a result of Trump’s order; Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice says it’s happening at other Iowa plants, too, though details were not available. (CNN, IPR)
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Iowa graduate students call university’s decision “total capitulation:” After two University of Iowa staff members were put on administrative leave after they were secretly taped by a conservative news outlet, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students said such recordings were not only prohibited, their firings were wrong. “We are alarmed by the use of government power in an attempt to censor such speech, and hereby call on President Wilson to protect students, faculty, and staff from interference in our university by the Reynolds and Trump administrations.” (Iowa City Press-Citizen)
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Iowa National Guard ordered to work with ICE: Immigration rights groups Escucha Mi Voz and LULAC Iowa condemned the move. “Deploying the National Guard against our state’s hardworking immigrant communities is morally indefensible and risks widespread violations of civil liberties and constitutional rights,” said Alejandra Escobar of Escucha Mi Voz. “Governor Reynolds’ plan is a misuse of Iowa’s resources,” said Joe Henry of LULAC. “The governor should be putting her efforts toward the real problems we’re facing in Iowa like climbing cancer rates, the second-worst economy in the nation, poor access to healthcare and dangerous levels of water pollutants in our rivers.” (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
- Des Moines firefighters won a compensation lawsuit against the city. They’ll now get extra time off when working overtime on holidays. (Axios)
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West Des Moines firefighters sue over misclassification: Fifteen current and former firefighters say the city inaccurately classified them as exempt from overtime because of their managerial status, though generally first responders aren’t classified as such. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
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The Republican megalaw is for the wealthy, the CBO confirmed this week. It’s also “a betrayal of everything I believe government should be for,” according to International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers President Kenneth Cooper. “This so-called One Big Beautiful Bill is the greatest transfer of wealth from working people to the rich in our nation’s history.” (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
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After firing the head of the BLS, Trump installed a far-right loyalist (shocker) who now says monthly jobs report numbers aren’t needed. Columnist Ed Tibbetts remembers a certain Iowa governor who tried reimagining job numbers, too. (Iowa Capital Dispatch, Along the Mississippi)
- It’s not just you; prices are indeed rising, driven by tariffs. (Yahoo Finance)
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Won a union: Seventeen full- and part-time baristas and shift supervisors at a Starbucks in Des Moines voted 10-5 to unionize with Starbucks Workers United. It’s now the fourth unionized Starbucks in Iowa. Read more here. (Des Moines Register)
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Voting on a union: Seventeen linemen, apprentice linemen, line foremen and member service technicians with Southwest Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative in Corning voted Tuesday on whether to unionize with the IBEW Local 55; no word yet on the National Labor Relations Board website.
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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. Twenty-four x-ray radiographers and lead workers with American Ordnance in Middletown filed a petition Aug. 11 to unionize with IAM Local 1010.
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- Advanced Drainage Systems in Waterloo is closing and laying off 71 employees by Sunday. Read more here.
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Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 35 workers by Aug. 24, 11 workers by Sept. 8, 44 workers by Sept. 22, and 10 workers by Oct. 4.
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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.
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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.
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TreeHouse Foods in New Hampton is closing and laying off 48 workers by Sept. 12. Read more here.
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