It’s Worker Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024.

I went to the strike line at Cargill Corn Milling in Cedar Rapids last week, visiting with a few of the roughly 100 Teamsters-affiliated workers who have been on strike since Oct. 1.

And those workers kept coming back to one major issue: Respect.

A worker on the strike line in front of the Cargill Corn plant in Cedar Rapids on Oct. 2, 2024.

(Amie Rivers/Iowa Starting Line)

Keith Zahrt, who has worked at Cargill for 15 years, said he understands that Cargill has to run the plant “24/7, 365 days a year.” He’s missed holidays with his family when he’s called in, and missed school plays his 8-year-old daughter has performed in.

But when workers asked Cargill to give them consideration for wages that hadn’t been keeping up with inflation, they said they got none.

“If you ask everybody out here, everybody will bring up the word ‘respect,’” Zahrt said. “All’s we’re asking for is a little consideration for the sacrifices that we make.”

Koby Sprous, who has worked at Cargill for two years, said sometimes workers are asked to do shifts of 12 hours or even 16 hours at a time.

“We’re the ones that bring them money,” Sprous said. “We produce everything. We load these trucks, these rail cars, that get sent around the country.”

The vote to strike was “overwhelming,” said Joe Kirchhoff, chief union steward at the plant.

He echoed the issues brought up by Zahrt and Sprous, and added workers felt they “took a hit” with their 2021 contract, agreeing to more concessions because of the pandemic.

The company told IPR it plans to meet with workers later this week to negotiate further.

Want to help? Though there’s no official strike fund set up, workers say the biggest thing folks can do is come out to the plant, at 1710 16th Ave. SE in Cedar Rapids. (Strikers will be picketing ’round the clock.)

They’ll always take bottled water, snacks, and other supplies. But even a friendly wave, honk of support, and stopping to chat and walk the line for a few minutes helps morale, they say.

They’re also inviting the public to a rally at 4 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday).

Watch a video interview here.

Are you a current or former Cargill Cedar Rapids employee? Tell me your perspective on this.

Amie Rivers

Community Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Email me

This week’s Iowa worker news:

Iowa Republicans have a plan for the state’s child care crisis, and it’s this: Bigger class sizes and younger workers. Starting Line Correspondent Chase has more here.
Recertification elections start now: Public employees in Iowa are required to recertify their unions, or lose them. Learn more here, and vote here through Oct. 22.
Worker refused to cut hair, was fired: Drew Harvey is suing TMC Transportation of Des Moines after he says the company told him he needed to cut his hair “for safety reasons.” Harvey is Black and wears his hair in locs, a protective hairstyle. He says he offered to trim it or wear a different hard hat, but the company said no and fired him. Half of US states ban hair-based discrimination in the workplace; Iowa is not one of them.
Stop prison assaults: The union representing Iowa’s prison workers—two of whom were just injured by an inmate in late September—is asking the state to help reduce assaults by increasing staffing, instituting new safety protocols, and bringing back collective bargaining legislators gutted years ago.
Show your support for USPS workers: The Iowa Citizen Action Network has a petition you can sign here.
Port workers on East Coast reach tentative agreement: After three days on strike, during which businesses collectively freaked out (and the Biden administration refused to stop the strike), the International Longshoremen’s Association is returning to work with raises of $24/hour over the next six years. (US Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, criticized the strike for its costs “to the American economy.”)
Biden pressing railroads on sick days: In a letter last month, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su urged three major railroads to reach agreements “immediately” with their employees’ unions to provide paid sick leave, without waiting for renegotiation of their broader collective bargaining agreements.
What’s the government doing about high prices? The Federal Trade Commission is looking at whether some of those price hikes are driven by profiteering, “using all of our tools to make sure that no American is paying more because of illegal business practices, be it at the grocery store, be it at the pump, be it at the pharmacy, on food and groceries in particular,” FTC Chair Lina Khan told reporters last week.
Immigrants are good, actually: Next time your neighbor or coworker starts in on the right’s favorite bogeyman, point them to all these EPI statistics showing that immigrants help the economy, help the tax base, decrease inflation, and are not actually taking jobs away from you.
Iowa layoffs coming up in the next month:
– Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off 16 workers by Oct. 20, 47 workers by Nov. 18, and eight workers by Dec. 1.

– Duluth Trading Company in Dubuque is closing and laying off 74 workers by Oct. 27. Read more here.

– Chicago Rivet and Machine Co. in Albia is closing and laying off 19 workers by Oct. 31. Read more here.

– Gates Corporation in Newton is closing and laying off 33 workers by Nov. 1, four workers by Nov. 15, and four workers by Nov. 22. Read more here.

– Tyson Foods in Perry is still closing, with another 19 workers to be laid off by Nov. 1.

Before you punch out 🤜

Union members, like members of any other group of people, are not a monolith. The national Teamsters union, for example, declined to endorse a presidential candidate because a poll of Teamsters suggested a majority would be voting for Trump. (The Iowa Teamsters endorsed Harris.)

It’s important to look at the choice clear-eyed, however: If Trump is elected, and Project 2025 is implemented, here is exactly what they plan to do about unions and worker organizing.

(Send me your book/movie/article suggestions here.)