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UnityPoint nurses likely win union: With a vote of 871-666, despite 251 ballots being challenged, the math is mathing in favor of the 1,776 Des Moines-based nurses getting to unionize with Teamsters.

An Allegiant pilot based in Des Moines says pilots have been negotiating with the airline for five years just to get the same pay other pilots get.

The national escalating Starbucks strike, intended to bring the company back to the bargaining table, began with several stores across the country on Nov. 13, and two of Iowa’s four union Starbucks stores joined Dec. 4—Iowa City and Des Moines.

Working class news you can use: Voting on a union: The UnityPoint vote among 1,776 health care professionals at four Des Moines hospitals on whether to join Teamsters Local 90 was held Dec. 7-9. Unofficial results show nurses won their union, 871-666—but overnight recovery nurse Dawn Balek tells me there are 250 of those ballots being challenged. Given the vote margin, however,…

Two of Iowa’s four unionized Starbucks locations joined a national Starbucks Workers United escalating strike today.

After a delayed vote because of the government shutdown, hundreds of nurses at four UnityPoint Health hospitals in the Des Moines area are voting this weekend on whether to unionize with Teamsters Local 90—an election being closely watched by non-union nurses across Iowa who are also struggling with understaffing and patient violence. The postponed UnityPoint vote among 1,776 health care professionals at Blank…

News briefs for the Iowa working class for the week of Nov. 20, 2025:

The kidnapping goon squad gutting our workforce keeps rolling to more cities across the US. Its newest target is Charlotte, North Carolina, and soon ICE and Border Patrol will bring their terror to New Orleans. But deportations of immigrant workers continue to happen everywhere—including in Iowa. The latest: Noel Lopez De La Cruz, a 24-year-old landscaper from Mount Pleasant…

News for the Iowa working class for Nov. 14, 2025: Rural hospitals? Never heard of her: At her first in-person town hall in more than a year, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks told Iowans in Keosauqua on Monday she thinks she “strengthened and preserved Medicaid” when she voted to approve President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill—despite attendees pointing…

Case New Holland (CNH) announced it would close its Burlington plant by mid-2026, with 200 workers laid off as a result. But the labor union wasn’t going to take that sitting down.