A Des Moines Starbucks could be the next Starbucks store to unionize by next month.
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Tenants union in Johnson Co. unveils demands on owner Havenpark
Residents are calling on Havenpark to institute “a two-year moratorium on lot rent increases” and said park owners needed “to provide clean, safe drinkable water, essential park maintenance, and responsive on-site management in all parks.”
Don’t sleep on these Iowa union member discounts & perks
Being an Iowa union member boasts tons of benefits—from discounts at local businesses to savings on cell phone plans. Learn where and how you can save in Iowa.
Nurses are overworked. Rivers Hills workers hope unionization helps
Workers at River Hills Community Health Centers in south central Iowa were fed up with being overworked and seeing their patients suffer as a result. So they decided to unionize. Over a hundred workers across six River Hills clinics announced this week in Ottumwa they...
Iowa Republicans rush anti-apprenticeship, anti-union contracting bill, raising safety concerns
In 24 hours, Republicans in both chambers passed a bill that takes away an Iowa city’s ability to prefer contracts with established training programs for taxpayer funded projects. Iowa Republicans passed a controversial bill this week stopping local governments from...
Bettendorf Starbucks could be 3rd in Iowa to unionize
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...
Union reps slam Iowa legislators after child labor violations rack up
Labor leaders in eastern Iowa called out Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Republicans who backed new laws to loosen child labor, and tied it to Project 2025's goal of loosening child labor nationwide during a forum in Cedar Rapids last week. Rick Moyle, executive...
Davenport Starbucks is 2nd in Iowa to unionize
A second Starbucks has officially unionized in Iowa—and two workers there say they were almost the first. Eighteen workers at the Starbucks store on East 53rd Street in Davenport filed with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize in May. Out of 17 eligible...
Bruegger’s Bagels employees launch new union in Iowa
Workers at Bruegger’s Bagels, a nationwide bakery chain, are trying to unionize—and, surprisingly, the effort is starting in Iowa, a state with some of the fewest rights for workers in the country.
2 years after historic union vote, Grinnell students sign 1st-in-nation contract
By Zach Spindler-Krage, News Editor, The Scarlet and Black Members of the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) officially ratified, in a 162-1 vote, the first contract in US history to cover all undergraduate student workers. On Friday, Grinnell College...
Biden attacks GOP abortion bans, vows to restore Roe during State of the Union
“Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom,” Biden said to Republicans. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?”
Biden takes aim at high costs during State of the Union speech
Biden called on Congress to pass a mortgage relief credit that would give first-time homebuyers an annual tax credit of up to $5,000 a year for two years. He also endorsed legislation to build and renovate roughly 2 million homes and vowed to crack down on “big landlords who break antitrust laws by price-fixing and driving up rents.”
Widow of Iowa correctional officer killed on the job speaks in support of unions
Sara McFarland wants to make sure her husband’s on-the-job death—during the inmate escape attempt at Anamosa State Penitentiary in 2021— wasn’t in vain. Her husband, Robert McFarland, was a correctional officer at Anamosa. He and nurse Lorena Schulte were murdered on...
Iowa Teamsters head says statewide strikes possible to stop union-busting bill
Jesse Case, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 238, said everything—including strikes—are on the table if that’s what it takes to stop a union-busting bill that has worked its way through the Iowa Senate. For about an hour on Wednesday, Teamsters members and their...
Iowa Republicans have a new union-busting bill
Labor advocates say a new Republican-backed bill that would force public employers in Iowa to submit a list of employees eligible to vote in their union election prior to each election—and, if the state doesn't get it in time, they'll decertify the union—is yet...
Biden vows to keep fighting for workers during stop at union auto plant
President Joe Biden said tentative contracts between the United Auto Workers union and the Detroit Three are “changing the face of the country” by promising better wages and benefits, and creating thousands of new jobs.
Iowa City Unionized Starbucks Workers ‘Strike With Pride’
Iowa City Starbucks workers and community members gathered for a one-day strike on Friday, joining over 3,000 workers in more than 150 stores across the country.
Southeast Iowa Meatpacking Workers Forming Union
Meatpacking workers in southeast Iowa are now—officially—gearing up to organize into labor unions at their respective workplaces.
UNI Black Student Union President Chosen for Newman Civic Fellowship
Lexi Gause, a first-generation college student from Cedar Rapids, has been chosen for a year-long program that supports students who have been identified as civic leaders.
Workers Behind Iowa City’s Mission Creek Festival Want Union Contract
Twenty behind-the-scenes workers that keep productions at a historic Iowa City theater running smoothly—including this weekend's Mission Creek Festival—are asking for the public's help to put pressure on their employer for their first union contract. Englert Theatre...
Iowa City Starbucks Files to Unionize the Same Week Ex-CEO Grilled in Senate
A Starbucks coffee shop in Iowa City is the first Starbucks in the state to file for union representation. The move occurred just two days before the company's former CEO was asked to testify before a US Senate committee for union busting. Thirty-one workers at the...
This Union Just Won The Largest-Ever Wage Increase In Iowa
A small eight-person police department in western Iowa just won what's believed to be the largest collectively bargained wage increase in Iowa history. The Carter Lake Peace Officers Association, the union covering the eight police officers of the City of Carter Lake,...
Ingredion Strike Over: Here’s What Union Members Won
Through days topping 90 degrees with no shade and days at 11 degrees below zero coupled with dangerous wind chills, unionized workers in Cedar Rapids held the line for nearly six months despite the pressures of being out of work. On Sunday, after 175 days on the...
Ingredion, Union Have Tentative Agreement; Vote Sunday
Workers who have been on strike since last summer at an ingredient and starch manufacturer in Cedar Rapids will be voting on a potential contract this weekend. The contract's details were slowly hammered out since around 116 workers at Ingredion—organized with the...
UNI Faculty Union Ask Regents For Raises To Match Inflation
Faculty at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) say their pay hasn't kept up with inflation for years, and are asking the Iowa Board of Regents for nearly 10% raises to make up for it. United Faculty UNI, which represents around 500 professors, associate professors,...
Union Organizing, Activity Was On The Rise In Iowa In 2022
Iowa remains one of the states least friendly to labor organizing and worker power. But the cracks are starting to show. Iowa workers filed 14 representation cases with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the 2022 fiscal year, an increase of 180% compared to...
Railroad Unions Disappointed By Biden’s Call For Congress To Halt Potential Strike
As a massive rail strike draws closer, rail unions lambasted a statement President Joe Biden put out Monday asking Congress to impose the agreement, even as the majority of the workforce has rejected it. "I am calling on Congress to pass legislation immediately to...
What Is Recertification And Why Does Iowa Make Public Unions Do It?
Nearly 180 public unions in Iowa are currently in the midst of being forced to vote on keeping their union, or else the state will take it away. It's called "recertification," and it's mandatory of certain public unions in Iowa since the Republican-majority...
Union Says Ingredion Puts Cedar Rapids At Risk By Using Scab Workers
Striking Ingredion workers in Cedar Rapids say it's more than their livelihoods at stake if the company refuses to negotiate with them: Hazardous and potentially explosive chemicals and starches used to make Ingredion products are now being manufactured by replacement...
Axne Cosponsors Bill To End Corporate Subsidies For Union Busting
Companies engaged in so-called union-busting tactics, such as hiring expensive law firms to subject their employees to anti-union meetings, can currently treat those expenses as tax write-offs. But under a new US House of Representatives bill sponsored by Cindy Axne,...