Why wouldn’t they meet with Waterloo’s small businesses?

October 15, 2026

Sign Up for the Worker's Almanac Newsletter

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

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

Lonnisha Robinson, president of Eddie B’s restaurant in downtown Waterloo, is struggling.

“Small businesses are hurting,” she told me. “Black small businesses are hurting.”

She and other Waterloo businesses are seeing higher costs for everything, and trying to stay afloat.

The one thing they haven’t seen? The people representing them in DC.

What do you think our federal government should do to help small businesses? Reply and tell me.

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Member, COURIER United (WGA East)

Latina workers are rare employment bright spot: While Black, white, and Latino employment rates are flattening or even declining in recent months, the rate for Latinas continues to grow, according to EPI.
Workers are still dying of heat, this time in Mississippi.
We’re still boycotting Starbucks until they negotiate with their workers’ union, and now Philadelphia’s City Council is encouraging it too.
83% of AFL-CIO members are “extremely motivated” to vote this November, up from 73% in the last midterm election in 2022.
Union endorsements: AFSCME Council 61 in Iowa, as well as the national AFSCME, endorsed Lindsay James for US House in northeast Iowa’s District 2 this week. “We need leaders who will stand with workers, respect organized labor, and fight for an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top,” said Council 61 AFSCME President Todd Copley. // Jeff Kurtz, former chairman on the state legislative board for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, recently endorsed Dave Bushaw for US House in northeast Iowa’s District 2. “I will endorse a candidate that chooses the fruit of working men and women’s labor over investment capital,” Kurtz said.

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

Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off:
14 workers by Saturday
5 workers by Oct. 31
35 workers by Nov. 14
10 workers by Nov. 28
47 workers by Jan. 27, 2027
Read more here.
RTX in Cedar Rapids is laying off 1 worker by Oct. 30.
Winnebago Industries in Forest City is laying off:
51 workers by Nov. 9
27 workers by Nov. 30
67 workers by Mar. 26, 2027
Carry On Trailer in Missouri Valley is closing and laying off 79 workers by Nov. 29. Read more here.