The newsletter for the Iowa worker.

It’s Wednesday, Apr. 10, 2024.

Democrats may be in the minority in the Iowa Legislature, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still trying to pass meaningful legislation to help Iowa’s workers.

This year, that includes an Iowa House proposal to amend the Iowa Constitution to give workers “the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively.”

The joint resolution reads, “No law shall be passed or enforced that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”

Iowa Reps. Jennifer Konfrst and Adam Zabner open (and trash) a letter from an industry group against the proposal to enshrine the right to form a union in the Iowa Constitution.

Screenshot of TikTok from Rep. Zabner

The bill was sponsored by 28 legislators, all Democrats, and supported by both the Iowa Federation of Labor and AFSCME Council 61.

Not a single Republican signed on for worker protections.

That’s kind of been their MO, by the way—Iowa Republicans also largely ignored the Work Without Worry bill that would have made it easier for disabled Iowans to work, instead coming up with their own version, which disability advocates like Alex Watters say is inadequate.

Nationally, Democrats managed to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act out of the US House on a mostly party-line vote three years ago in 2021. Yet, except for two hearings in 2022, the PRO Act has languished in the Senate.

Perhaps it’s because our representatives haven’t heard from us.

Find and contact your Iowa state legislators here, and do the same with your US senators here. Tell them what you care about, and why they should care, too. After all, they work for us!

Amie Rivers

Community Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Email me

This week’s Iowa worker news:

Hormel workers win largest wage increase in company history: Workers affiliated with the United Farm and Commercial Workers union at the Hormel plant in Knoxville will get a $4/hour wage increase and better benefits in their four-year contract ratified last week. Workers had taken their contract fight public last month.
Iowa’s newest union: Six out of 10 employees at Allied Construction Services in Des Moines successfully voted to unionize with the Laborers Local 177.
Organizing right now: Two mechanics and a technician at Alltown Bus Service in Davenport want to affiliate with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters 371.
Companies laying off workers this month: Wells Fargo laid off five in West Des Moines. Aramark Campus laid off 30 in Fairfield. John Deere will lay off 90 workers, 30 at a time, in Ankeny, along with 308 in Waterloo. Faircast Inc. will lay off 46 in Fairfield.
Union organizing is up, by 35% in the last six months, according to a report out this week from the National Labor Relations Board. A total of 1,618 petitions were filed in the US between Oct. 1 and Mar. 31, compared to 1,199 in the six months prior.
Fast-food employees in California are getting at least $20 per hour as of last week. That’s thanks to a new law that was the result of a deal struck between the fast-food companies and labor, including Service Employees International Union. The minimum wage remains $7.25 in Iowa.
Disabled workers can be paid less than minimum wage under federal law. But 16 states (and counting) have eliminated the subminimum wage. Iowa is not one of them.
A bill in the US Senate would grant farm workers legal status. The bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for farm workers who are already working in the US. “For years, agricultural employers have been reporting agricultural labor shortages to Congress,” said Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers. “This is Congress’ chance to solve that problem.”
OSHA inspections will get safer with the adoption of a new “walkaround rule,” where workers can select their own representative to accompany an OSHA representative during worksite inspections. The rule was applauded by worker safety groups and condemned by industry groups.

Before you punch out ☕️

In shockingly good news, Starbucks is going to stop fighting its unions.

The coffee chain, notorious for refusing to acknowledge its 400-some unions (including one in Iowa City), or bargain with them, has agreed to begin bargaining with Starbucks Workers United, the union employees have formed.

The company had been getting plenty of bad press for its refusal to bargain for years. But perhaps the turning point was when a shareholder went to the SEC, saying that the company has been withholding how much it had spent on anti-union activities (estimated at around $240 million in February).