Worker’s Almanac
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Iowan Fired in DOGE Purge Breaks Silence
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. It turns out that DOGE is less of a waste-reduction project and more of a wrecking ball that is cutting vital services. Like USDA folks working on bird flu, whoops! And it’s also cutting workers, like Iowans, who will likely move out of our…
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This Could Be Iowa’s 3rd Unionized Starbucks
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. As Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) members representing more than 500 Starbucks stores nationwide prepare for mediation with their company—a huge step in their quest to begin bargaining a first contract—I spoke with workers at a Starbucks in Bettendorf who are getting ready for an election…
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All the Dumb Things Elon Musk Is Doing Now
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. Unelected billionaire Elon Musk continues his unconstitutional steamrolling through the federal government under the guise of “efficiency” (with President Donald Trump’s blessing). That includes: Cuts at nonprofits everywhere after the loss of federal grants, Thousands of Americans out of a job after USAID cut,…
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Des Moines Company Drops Lawsuits Against Workers
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. Remember the 14+ Seneca workers in Des Moines who left their jobs after their company switched the equipment they knew how to service, and then got sued by Seneca over their noncompete agreements? The company has now dropped lawsuits against at least two of…
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How Trump’s Immigration Raids Could Hurt Iowa
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. President Donald Trump’s promised large-scale immigration raids in major cities across the US could begin as early as this week (and have already begun in other places). And that’s likely to mean the worker shortage is about to get a lot worse. Immigration rights…
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Bereavement Leave is Nowhere Near Enough
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2024. As many of you know, I was off work for the past month dealing with the loss of my wife. As far as my bosses being accommodating to my needs during all of this, I could not be luckier. They’ve given me carte blanche…
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🚜 Waterloo Took Brunt of 2024 Deere Layoffs
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Another round of layoffs at John Deere is coming to Iowa. This time, 112 workers will be laid off from the East Donald Street plant in Waterloo by Jan. 6, while another 80 will be laid off at the plant in Davenport by Jan.…
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🦃 Who Has to Work on Thanksgiving?
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. My coworkers and I at Iowa Starting Line are lucky to have this Thursday and Friday off for the Thanksgiving holiday, so I’m getting you this newsletter early this week. It made me wonder: How many workers don’t get Thanksgiving/Friday off? Obviously,…
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🌽 Big Problems for Ag Workers
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. 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…
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🧑🔧 What About Listening to the Working Class?
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. I’ve been reading several takes on what went wrong for Democrats in this election. And there’s one that actually resonates: The party as a whole needed to do a better job centering the working class. Before you furiously hit reply, look: I know…
