It’s Thursday, July 17, 2025.
|
As part of our Cancer in Iowa series (starting next week!), 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.
|
President Donald Trump’s deportation quotas, which are rounding up plenty of folks who have no criminal record and are abiding by regular immigration court hearings in order to become legal citizens, are estimated to eventually cost the US around 6 million jobs, per a new Economic Policy Institute study. Around 2.6 million of those jobs will be jobs held by US-born workers. Half of the losses will be in construction and childcare, but agriculture will suffer too.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds should be screaming about the federal government’s masked goons deporting people—workers she desperately needs in Iowa—without due process. But because it’s Trump, she can only muster mealy-mouthed pleas for “discussions” begging him to at least leave the agriculture sector alone. He said he’d consider it, but his administration says otherwise: They literally think they’ll replace highly skilled ag and construction workers with the people they are kicking off of Medicaid.
Meanwhile, crops are going unharvested in the fields, which cannot bode well for grocery prices already getting hit with inflation caused mainly by Trump’s tariffs.
But let’s also think about these workers as members of our communities.
My former colleague Ty Rushing wrote about Watsonville, California, and how an entire community is so fearful of being caught up in the disappearances that they’re not eating out at restaurants, going to stores, or even watching the annual Fourth of July parade.
“It’s still whiplash how we can be so many things at once,” wrote Chuy Renteria, who also grew up in West Liberty. “The hardest workers doing the jobs others won’t do, the best player on the school soccer teams, the most depraved, viscous murderers and rapists, the biggest, most effective scapegoat.”
There are things we can do.
Workplaces are hosting Know Your Rights trainings to help prevent workplace deportations. Labor unions are mobilizing against ICE elsewhere. In some states, people have formed “neighborhood watch” groups to document ICE raids. There is a bill in Congress to unmask ICE agents, and make them wear identifiable badges.
Iowa City Catholic Worker is calling on people to pressure Iowa’s congressional members to bring Pascual home (numbers: Senator Joni Ernst – 202-224-3254; Senator Chuck Grassley – 202-224-3744; Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks – 202-225-6576).
And there’s always the good old-fashioned protest.
Have thoughts? Email me.
|
|
|
|
|
Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER UNITED, WGA East
|
|
|
|
|
-
Union calls out Whirlpool for layoffs. The Amana facility laid off 250 workers this week over the objections of the IAM union, and the union is now pushing for intervention from Congress. “Iowa’s working families deserve respect and dignity,” said Christina Bohannan, running for US Congress in the district. “Whirlpool should stand by its commitment to invest in our country by bringing its manufacturing back home.” (KGAN, KCRG, Iowa Starting Line)
-
Winnebago Industries, started in Iowa nearly 70 years ago, is shutting down two of its four Iowa plants that manufacture its travel trailers. By Sept. 8, the company will lay off 77 Waverly workers and 18 Charles City workers, and cut the remaining 26 Charles City workers by Dec. 12. (KWWL)
- Getting what they’re owed: A newly filed lawsuit says that Gov. Reynolds’ refusal in 2021 to pay pandemic-related unemployment assistance to 30,000 Iowans was unlawful. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
-
Coffee prices will double because Trump has a grievance with Brazil. (The American Prospect)
-
Peeking behind the curtain at JBS: Meatpacker JBS has pork production facilities across Iowa and is building another in Perry after Tyson left. But now that it’s going public on the New York Stock Exchange, scrutiny of its bribery scandals and labor violations is going public too. (More Perfect Union)
-
More privatization in prison: To cut costs, the Iowa Department of Corrections wants to get rid of full-time nurses and other medical workers in the state’s prisons. The union opposes it, and so do some state legislators. “Instead of supporting the frontline workers already doing the job, state Republican lawmakers want to hand it off to a private company,” said Rep. Timi Brown-Powers of Waterloo. “That’s not leadership. It’s a costly mistake.” (Des Moines Register)
- Sign the No Contract, No Coffee pledge to support Starbucks baristas on strike (if they go on strike) here.
-
Cutting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health isn’t just going to increase on-the-job physical injuries—the organization also assisted workers with mental health issues like addiction and suicide. (CBS News)
-
No Tax on Tips with a catch: Republicans are leaning into this provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill, but it turns out it only applies to the first $25,000 you make—and it expires in three years. Increasing the minimum wage would benefit workers way more, since it’s officially a poverty wage. (You’re Probably Getting Screwed, EPI)
- The Center for Worker Justice in Iowa City is shutting down after 13 years. (Little Village)
-
FedEx is closing two facilities and laying off nearly 500 workers, including 84 in Des Moines. (Freight Waves)
-
Filing for a union: Seventy-two full- and part-time workers at River Hills Community Health Center in Ottumwa filed July 14 on whether to be represented by River Hills United/Teamsters Local 90.
-
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 are voting on whether to unionize with the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 55.
-
Won a union: Two hundred health care workers at two Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center facilities in West Burlington voted 125-55 to remain in their Communication Workers of America union. Fifteen carpenter craft employees and apprentices at Sioux City Engineering in Sioux City voted 11-2 to be represented by North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters.
|
- CommUnity Crisis Services in Iowa City is laying off 49 workers by today.
-
Collins Aerospace is laying off 131 workers at two locations by Friday: 102 workers in Cedar Rapids and 29 workers in Decorah. Read more here.
- Main Street Manor in Swea City is closing and laying off 13 workers by Wednesday.
- Whirlpool Corporation in Amana is laying off 250 workers by July 30.
- American Contract Systems in Grimes is closing and laying off 62 workers by July 31. Read more here.
-
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.
-
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, and 11 workers by Sept. 8.
- 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.
|
|
|
|
Bird flu is a big reason why egg prices are so high. But a big reason bird flu damages so much so quickly is because of our system of giant warehouses of chickens.
And we have giant warehouses because our food is increasingly owned by just a handful of companies maximizing profit above health and safety.
I learned all this in the latest Food and Water Watch report on egg prices, which you can read here.
|
|
|
Would you recommend this newsletter to your friends and family?
|
|
|
Do you or your company want to support Iowa Starting Line’s mission and showcase your products or services to an engaged audience of more than 21,000 subscribers at the same time?
Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.
|
|
|
You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.
Our mailing address is: Iowa Starting Line c/o Courier Newsroom
101 Avenue of the Americas 8th and 9th Floors New York, NY 10013
|
|
|
|