It’s Thursday, May 1, 2025.
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Amie here. Happy International Workers’ Day, celebrated by all the countries around the world except the US and Canada (because we’re mad about its socialist underpinnings).
It’s also the basis for today’s May Day National Day of Action, put on by grassroots groups like the 50501 Movement, Indivisible, and Hands Off! groups.
Teachers are planning “walk-ins” to meet before school in solidarity in several of Iowa’s school districts, organized by the Iowa State Education Association.
Immigrant rights groups, including in Iowa City and Waterloo, will hold rallies in support of immigrant workers who have been especially targeted in recent months.
Other cities, both big and small, will have larger rallies for the wider public. Click on each link for more information:
My favorite, numerical-wise, has got to be in Fort Dodge, because come on: A rally organized by the 50501 group, in the 50501 zip code, on 5/01? And organizers of that one tell me they’re also holding it precisely at 5:01 p.m.
“Many of us wanted to publicly support all the things we value as US citizens: public education, workers’ rights, and the dignity of all people,” said Claudia Koch, one of the organizers of the Fort Dodge rally. “Rallying under the banner of 50501 in Fort Dodge seems like too good a coincidence to pass up.”
Find a rally near you on mobilize.us/mayday.
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Amie Rivers
Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line
Member, COURIER UNITED/WGA East
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Working class news you can use:
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Workers Memorial Day was April 28, an annual remembrance organized by local unions and the AFL-CIO. I went to the one in Waterloo and learned about 45 workers who died on the job in Iowa in 2024, and what our president could be doing to prevent some of those deaths. (Iowa Starting Line)
- Petition against corporate tax cut: What do Iowa Republicans want to do with a growing unemployment fund (thanks to them cutting unemployment)? Why, give it to the corporations, of course!
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The supply shock is coming: It’s not just that shelves will start emptying out about seven weeks from now; it’s that China dropped its soybean orders a whopping 97% and outright canceled pork shipments. Sure, Trump may bail out Iowa farmers again, but it’s a short term fix; China and other trading partners may just bail on us entirely, Tom Vilsack warned this week. (American Prospect, Fortune, NY Post, Yahoo Finance, Axios, KCCI)
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Farm subsidies are unsustainable: That’s the conclusion of a new report, which found that subsidies are “no longer countercyclical”—safety net payments are high even when farmers make money. “In short, US crop agriculture confronts a government payment trap,” the report says. “Unwinding this trap will unfortunately come with pain, such as higher financial stress and bankruptcies.” (Farm Doc Daily)
- Pushback on DOGE firings at NLRB: Democrats are warning DOGE firings at the National Labor Relations Board, the US’s top labor watchdog, threaten to render the organization “basically ineffectual” and will be “catastrophic” for workers’ rights. (The Guardian)
- If you depend on tourists from Europe, bad news: The Trump administration’s jailing of random European tourists has scared them all off. (Euro News)
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Private equity bad for nursing homes: A new report finds that, actually, having a private equity firm that only cares about profit buy a bunch of nursing homes is bad! This is my shocked face. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
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We’re 100 days into Trump’s second term: Here’s what he’s done for workers! (EPI)
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Nobody can afford to buy a house, still. (NPR)
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Will Medicaid cuts mean more workers? LOL, nope, the opposite. (It turns out work requirements on safety net programs don’t boost employment whatsoever.) (Radio Iowa, EPI)
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Independent contractors are often misclassified, particularly in the construction industry. Here’s how it’s done, and what it actually costs both workers and states themselves. (Workday Magazine, EPI)
- Iowa layoffs coming up in the next month:
– Ascent Professional Staffing in Muscatine is closing and laying off 32 workers by Friday.
– Corteva Agriscience in Johnston is laying off 44 workers by May 9.
– RTX in Cedar Rapids is laying off four workers by May 15.
– BHFO Inc. in Cedar Rapids is laying off 32 workers by May 16.
– Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 34 workers by May 18, 14 workers by June 1, and 46 workers by June 15.
– Pitney Bowes in Urbandale is closing and laying off 168 workers by May 19. Read more here.
– Michael’s Cookies in Clear Lake is closing and laying off 29 workers by May 23.
– Durham School Services is laying off 62 workers by May 31.
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Not only are Trump’s tariffs estimated to cost non-farming Iowans $1,300 this year, row crop farmers and hog producers—plus those working in Iowa’s ag sector broadly—are going to bear an even worse burden.
Starting Line’s Zachary Oren Smith notes correctly that our state was set up to do precisely this—and that could mean, if Trump doesn’t reverse course soon, “a potential cave-in of our state’s economy that will cause real suffering for Iowans.”
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