It’s Worker Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
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If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you already know about the thousands of layoffs at meatpacking plants like Tyson Foods in Perry, and the thousands—in smaller batches—of workers laid off at John Deere plants across the state (in part to move some operations to lower-wage countries like Mexico).
Yesterday, the Iowa Farm Bureau actually quantified those losses for the state’s vast, 385,000-person agricultural workforce. And it’s not good.
(Starting Line’s Zachary Oren Smith and I also chatted about this on his podcast this week.)
The group found around 11,400 Iowa workers have been laid off across farm equipment manufacturers, food processors and other agriculture-related businesses, taking $1.5 billion from the state’s overall economy with it.
That’s a big deal in a state where agriculture is 22% of the economy, and where 20% of the workforce is employed in the sector.
So why is this happening? Basically two reasons:
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Prices for corn and soybeans are low: A lot more corn is being grown these days for export, and it’s competing with an increase in corn exports from Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine. On the soybean side, China—one of the biggest importers of US soy—is buying a lot more from Brazil, primarily because of Brazil’s weaker currency (and thus cheaper soy). That is leading to net cash farm income plummeting 38% for corn and 40% for soybeans, to the lowest level it’s been in 15 years.
- Input costs are larger: While prices overall haven’t gone up a ton, because of their lower income, farmers can’t afford to do anything but tread water.
Passing a Farm Bill with provisions to address these issues might help. The latest version that just came out this week has some provisions about investing in the ag economy and helping trade—though Iowa’s senior Sen. Chuck Grassley is mostly just mad it took Democrats a long time to draft a new one.
What do you think would help Iowa farmers and ag workers? Email me here.
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This week’s Iowa worker news:
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New affordable housing could be coming to downtown Des Moines: The city council approved an application for a $5 million federal grant that Greater Des Moines Supportive Housing plans to use to turn the vacant Holiday Inn into 160 studio apartments for folks who earn 60% or less of the area’s median income.
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Paying for a crime you didn’t commit: ACLU of Iowa is supporting the case of an Iowa man who is arguing he should not have to pay for the cost of his court-appointed attorney since his shoplifting charges were dismissed.
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Consolidation in the meat industry, and frankly in many industries these days, needs to be an issue politicians start taking more seriously, Storm Lake Times Editor Art Cullen argued recently. (Read more into those numbers, particularly in ag, here.)
- Meatpacking plants mostly pollute low-income communities, particularly communities of color, a new Investigate Midwest report found. They even spotlighted Postville.
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Are you an officer in your union responsible for financial recordkeeping? A two-day course is being offered at the University of Iowa in December; learn more and sign up by Nov. 26 here.
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Last chance to weigh in on disability barriers to employment in Iowa: Fill out this survey from Disability Rights Iowa by Nov. 30.
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Forced anti-union meetings no longer allowed: The meetings where your boss makes you sit around and talk about how unions are bad, to dissuade you from starting one up? Those are now unlawful, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled. (Your boss can still hold them, you just don’t have to show up.)
- Workers are dying of heatstroke in record numbers, while states like Florida are actively preventing workers from any protections from heat, a new short documentary explores.
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Migrant farm workers are excluded from disaster relief, and particularly after hurricanes, that’s a big problem. It’s also one some in Congress are attempting to fix; you can sign a petition to support that effort here.
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Iowa layoffs coming up in the next month:
– Gates Corporation in Newton is closing and laying off the last six workers by Friday and two workers by Jan. 31. Read more here.
– Cygnus Home Services, aka Yelloh, is closing five Iowa locations, and laying off 13 workers in Atlantic, eight in Dyersville, 10 in Marion, 10 in Sioux City, and 12 in West Union, all by Friday. Read more here.
– Winnebago Industries in Forest City is laying off 33 workers by Friday.
– Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off eight workers by Dec. 1, 32 workers by Dec. 29, and two workers by Jan. 12.
– Myers Industries in Atlantic is closing and laying off 60 workers by Dec. 15. Read more here.
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Before you punch out 🤜
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I spoke to a group of folks at the Seed Coalition conference at Wartburg College over the weekend about union organizing among young Iowans, and one of the biggest questions they asked me was: Is the election of Donald Trump going to stop this?
I was slightly pessimistic about what might happen in the next four years. But then I read this article, which includes several optimistic takes (including how much more organizing happens under Republican presidents), and felt slightly better!
Check it out at Jacobin here.
(Send me your book/movie/article suggestions here.)
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