He’s one of the workers making the State Fair run

August 27, 2026

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Welcome to Thursday’s Almanac, for and about Iowa’s workers.

If break time’s over, here’s the tl;dr:

He helps keep the Iowa State Fair horse shows running—and he loves every minute of it
Upcoming Iowa layoffs and worker news
I wonder why there’s a teacher shortage …

I went to the Iowa State Fair for two reasons: The food and finding a story nobody else was getting.

When I met Tim Johnson, I knew I found someone special.

Johnson is a maintenance worker in the horse barn at the Fair. He works a lot of jobs, from fixing things to driving what I’m going to naïvely call the “tractor zamboni.”

But his favorite job is talking to people—and he’s a great guy to talk to.

It’s this week’s top story.

Do you know someone working behind the scenes who deserves a shoutout? Reply and tell me.

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Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Member, COURIER United (WGA East)

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We don’t have the money for that? The Economic Policy Institute has a nifty new calculator that tells you exactly how much your state’s (or metro’s) taxpayers are paying for the billions of dollars ICE is getting, and what that could pay for instead.
UAW workers want a better contract. John Deere proposed a two-year extension of the current union contract in July, but United Auto Workers members voted it down this weekend, saying they’re looking for better terms when their current contract expires in October of 2027.
Worker-friendly candidate endorsements. The Iowa Federation of Labor had its convention recently and released its list of candidates they’re endorsing in the November election for local, state, and federal offices. See that list here.
Federal workers have no paid family or medical leave. A new bill in Congress would change that.
Voting on a union. Seventy full- and part-time fixture, X-ray, layout, and laboratory workers at Wellman in Creston (WDC Acquisition) will vote Sept. 16 on whether to unionize with IAM District 6.

All information taken from Iowa Workforce Development’s WARN Act website. Read WARN Act and Iowa WARN Act criteria here.

BrandFX in Swea City is closing and laying off 56 workers by Aug. 31. Read more here.
Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off:
20 workers by Sept. 5
20 workers by Sept. 19
7 workers by Oct. 3
Read more here.
CNH Industrial in Burlington is laying off:
13 workers by Sept. 25
5 by Dec. 31
Read more here.

Why is there a teacher shortage? Here’s a big reason.

The teacher weekly wage penalty refers to the percentage difference in weekly earnings between public school teachers and other college-educated workers in different professions, showing how much less teachers earn.