Labor
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Latina workers rare bright spot in employment: Iowa worker news and layoffs, Oct. 15, 2026
While Black, white, and Latino employment rates are flattening or even declining in recent months, the rate for Latinas continues to grow.
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Waterloo’s Black-owned businesses aren’t getting help from DC
Waterloo’s small business owners are struggling. I asked whether they’d ever gotten help—or even heard from—their senators or representative in Washington, DC.
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Steel plant tax credits approved “without real protections for taxpayers”: Layoffs and news for Iowa’s workers
“Without real protections for taxpayers or guarantees that Iowans will fill these jobs, I have serious concerns that Iowa taxpayers will be left holding the bag while a foreign company walks away with over a billion dollars of our money,” said state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott.
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Why won’t the US give these Iowa workers a clear answer?
The government was either supposed to approve an extension to temporary protected status for hundreds of Iowans from El Salvador by Sept. 9, or deny it. They haven’t done either—and the confusion is leading to workers being laid off.
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Dubuque nurses sound alarm on cardiac cuts: Layoffs and worker news, Oct. 1, 2026
“You do not close a fire department because there aren’t enough fires in a particular area to justify the expense,” said Abby Butler, a nurse who has worked at Finley for four years.
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Could Iowa get the nation’s largest steel plant?
Trump says Iowa is getting the US’s biggest steel plant by 2030. But will it really happen, or is it a midterm mirage?
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Why Iowa has so many child labor violations
Iowa Republicans likely knew they were flouting federal law. But they were playing the long game.
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200 workers not rehired in Postville: Layoffs and news for the Iowa worker
After an accidental fire at AgriStar in Postville, 400 workers—around two-thirds of the former staff—have been rehired.
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Iowa’s child labor problem 10 times worse than national rate: News for workers, Sept. 17, 2026
Our state had 10 times the rate of child labor law violations compared to the US as a whole in 2025, according to Common Good Iowa’s Sean Finn—and businesses are rarely penalized for it.
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Iowa workers stiffed $900 million a year. He wants to stop that theft
An estimated $900 million is stolen from Iowa workers by their employers every year. If he’s elected, labor lawyer Nate Willems says the state will finally do something about that.
