Jobs
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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 director of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, referenced recent comments…
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Immigrant Iowans, major ag workforce, wonder if they should stay here
by Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest/Report for America Leer en español Having spent more than half her life in Waterloo, Iowa, she has built a life here. It’s where she met her husband and where her only daughter, who wants to become a sonographer, was born. That’s why, after a day’s work at an area meatpacking plant,…
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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 voters, 16 of them voted—and 15 voted for the union, an…
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Former Mercy Iowa City workers say UIHC is threatening pay, seniority
You probably heard about the very public bankruptcy of Iowa City’s *other* hospital, Mercy Iowa City, and how around 1,000 jobs were saved when the University of Iowa Health Care (UIHC) agreed to buy Mercy, changing the hospital’s name to UI Health Care Medical Center Downtown. But you may not have heard about what’s been…
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A Trump judge just blocked the ban of noncompete clauses
The FTC voted to ban noncompete agreements in April—those pesky clauses that employers often force their workers to sign which effectively bar them from starting their own business or finding a new job in the same field within a certain area or timeframe after leaving their current job.
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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.
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Basic income pilot UpLift actually helped Iowans. Here’s how
The UpLift program not only helped with bills, it helped start businesses, participants in the basic income pilot said—rebuking an Iowa law that banned such programs in the state. People who received $500 per month with no strings attached told their stories Wednesday evening in a Windsor Heights event put on by UpLift, which has…
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How to apply for a job in the American Climate Corps
Those who enroll in the American Climate Corps will learn how to install solar panels, restore coastal wetlands, retrofit homes to be more energy-efficient, fight wildfires, and more.
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AEAs cutting workers in wake of Republican legislation
Iowa legislators said a new bill cutting money for agencies that help students with disabilities wouldn’t affect services. But area education agencies (AEAs) across the state are now beginning to cut their budgets, and staff, because of it. “This is a day of grieving,” one staffer at the Green Hills AEA wrote on Facebook last…
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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 signed the contract, which takes effect immediately. The historic contract raises the base wage for…
