Amie here. If you’re from the Des Moines area, you probably know the name Evelyn K. Davis. There’s a park named after her, a community center, and more.
But who was Evelyn K. Davis, and why does her legacy still matter for working Iowans today?
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Back in the 1960s, more middle-income women were entering the workforce. That’s because of a push for workplace equality and the growing need for families to have dual incomes.
But childcare options didn’t keep up. Low-income women, particularly Black women, struggled to find adequate childcare while they worked.
Evelyn K. Davis, who had briefly been a single mother and worked low-paying jobs herself, knew something needed to be done.
In 1966, she opened Tiny Tot Family Outreach Center in Des Moines. It was Iowa’s first day care that specifically provided educational childcare and services for low-income families.
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She helped the working poor in other ways: Davis developed the state’s first day care certification program, partnering with Iowa State University, which literally set the standard of child care across Iowa.
She also opened a free medical clinic at Mercy Hospital in 1970, and advocated through the decades for the city’s low-income workers—both by meeting with elected leaders and through her work on community boards.
Davis retired in 1990 and died in 2001. But her legacy of helping workers lives on.
In 2013, the Evelyn K. Davis Working Families Center opened in Des Moines, and it still helps unemployed and under-employed Iowans access education, job training, and career services.
And her namesake 10-acre park on Forest Avenue, which she lobbied to build in 1993, hosts a summer program that provides free lunch and daily activities for neighborhood children.
Do you have a story about Evelyn K. Davis? Reply and tell me!
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER United (WGA East)
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Pushing workers out of Iowa: Workers are leaving Iowa in droves. One Iowan confronted Republican lawmakers about how striking state affirmative action policies and allowing for discrimination in professional licensure would only make the problem worse.
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Two new grocery store bills to keep prices down: State Sen. Zach Wahls this week introduced two bills in the Iowa Legislature he says will “protect both retail grocery consumers and workers.” The first would prohibit large grocery stores from owning their own meat processing facilities, called “vertical integration,” that often raises consumer prices. The second bans digital surveillance pricing, which allows stores to increase prices based on what they think a consumer is willing to pay. “If you’re a grocery chain, you shouldn’t be allowed to own the whole supply chain just so you can crush your competition and raise prices on Iowa families,” Wahls said in a statement. “And you damn sure shouldn’t be using cameras or algorithms to charge different people different prices for the same grocery cart.” UFCW International Vice President Ademola Oyefeso agreed. “If these trends continue, workers, small business owners, and shoppers will lose while big companies win larger and larger profits.”
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UnityPoint nurse shares her unionization story: Remember Belinda Carpenter, one of the organizers of the Nurses United union (still awaiting a court case to make their union official)? She just wrote an op-ed in Labor Notes talking about what they went through to get there.
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The use of AI in hiring, bargaining, wages and more would be prohibited under Iowa Senate Study Bill 3014 for state agencies, and it would compel them to disclose the use of artificial intelligence tools. Unions for state workers registered in support of it.
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Union endorsements: Teamsters Local 238 endorsed Sarah Trone Garriott for US House District 3 in Central Iowa. “Working people are tired of a political system that serves big money and leaves our communities behind,” said Jesse Case, Secretary-Treasurer of the union. “Sarah Trone Garriott shares those priorities and has shown she’ll listen to working people and deliver.” // Evan Langston, community leader and cofounder of Cedar Valley Working Families, endorsed Clint Twedt-Ball for US House District 2 in Northeast Iowa.
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Fewer OSHA inspectors, higher fatalities: That’s what the US Department of Labor warns is a major challenge in their latest report, due to staffing cuts. “A lack of available inspectors can lead to fewer inspections, diminished enforcement in high-risk industries and, ultimately, greater risk of fatalities, injuries, or compromised health for workers,” the department wrote.
- Trump more than doubled Argentina beef imports, making Iowa cattle producers so mad that even Republican US Rep. Zach Nunn had to issue a medium-worded statement.
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Young workers marched on Washington, DC, this weekend, advocating for better pay and working conditions they say are making it hard for Gen Z to get by, let alone get ahead.
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Trump Rx not only doesn’t make any medicines cheaper, it actually has higher prices on some drugs than other discount drug programs like GoodRx, a new report finds.
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Got a coworker believing anti-immigrant myths? It is possible to change their mind: Ask questions, build a relationship with them, root the conversation in your actual workplace, and draw on values of solidarity and building worker power, Natascha Elena Uhlmann writes.
- Write to Congress if you support the Railway Safety Act, which increases safety standards in the wake of the East Palestine derailment.
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Less than $1,000 for retirement is the median savings for all employed American adults between the ages of 21 and 64, according to a recent report.
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Easier to fire: Starting March 9, up to 50,000 federal employees could lose their current job protections and be converted into at-will employees at President Trump’s discretion, according to a final rule issued last week by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
- Voting on a union: Fifty full- and part-time workers at River Hills Community Health Center in Ottumwa will vote Feb. 19 on whether to be represented by Teamsters Local 90.
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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 is closing and laying off 40 workers in Ottumwa by Feb. 27, laying off 67 workers at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center by Mar. 17, and laying off 34 workers at MercyOne North Iowa Medical Center in Mason City by Mar. 17. Read more here.
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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Amie Rivers. It was edited by Paula Solis.
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