‘We see it as a trap’: Iowa workers chart new path to union

July 30, 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:

‘Nobody is gonna come save us:’ Iowa’s university workers form a different kind of union.
Legal Haitian workers who came here legally are suddenly not legal.
Why the housing affordability argument doesn’t always consider the larger problem of housing quality.

“ We see it really as a trap. We are pursuing a different kind of path to unionization.”

That’s Peter Flynn, a graduate of Iowa State University who now works there as a software developer.

Workers at Iowa’s three public universities who aren’t faculty aren’t unionized. But since they’re also public sector workers, they don’t want to form a traditional union, because those are prohibited by the state from bargaining on almost everything.

So Flynn and others at Iowa State, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa are trying something a little different.

It’s this week’s top story.

Have you had success organizing coworkers without a traditional union? Reply and tell me.

Check out the video below:

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Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Member, COURIER United (WGA East)

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UnityPoint nurses are still fighting for their union.
Haitian workers who are here legally on Temporary Protected Status had that protection stripped away Monday, leaving 300,000 of them at risk of deportation—including many in Waterloo.
120 degrees seems like a lot: How hot has it gotten at your job?
The Faster Labor Contracts Act passed the House on a bipartisan vote and is now in the Senate; you can email US Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst about it here.
We’d better nip this in the bud: There’s a growing labor trafficking problem in the black market cannabis industry.

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

River Hills Community Health Center is closing two clinics in Centerville and Richland, and laying off 19 workers in Centerville and 5 workers in Richland by Friday. Read more here and here.
US Cellular offices within Appliance Plus Cellular stores are closing and laying off 35 workers statewide by Friday:
5 workers in Algona,
5 workers in Charles City,
5 workers in Dyersville,
5 workers in Independence,
3 workers in New Hampton,
4 workers in Oelwein,
1 worker in Waukon,
3 workers in Webster City, and
4 workers in West Union.
Read more here.
The Iowa Department of Management in Des Moines is laying off 192 workers by Monday. Read more here.
Independence Premium Foods in Independence is laying off 41 workers by Aug. 9. Read more here.
Plastic Products Co. in West Branch is closing and laying off 77 workers by Aug. 14. Read more here.
Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off:
43 workers by Aug. 22,
20 workers by Sept. 5, and
20 workers by Sept. 19.
Read more here.