LABOR

Union rallies for Fort Madison prison workers: Prison health care workers unionized with AFSCME Council 61 held a rally Wednesday against a proposal from the state that would outsource prison health care across Iowa. “Whenever we see privatization, it’s not about looking out for the good of citizens,” said Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa Federation of…

Miller-Meeks said she liked clean energy tax credits, but her vote for the Big Beautiful Bill shows she didn’t care, writes Stefanie Warnick, a union construction worker with the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 43. “Our state needs leaders who will fight for the livelihoods of Iowans, not just sign letters and then vote…

Americans are starting to sour on capitalism. That’s according to the latest Gallup survey, which found the number of US adults who say they support capitalism—”an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods,” per Merriam-Webster—is at a record low. To be clear, “record low” is still more than half—54% of all adults still…

From the Iowa Worker’s Almanac: News you can use for the week of Sept. 4, 2025:

Labor unions are just starting to endorse candidates for 2026. It’s still very early for this, but here are a few I’ve seen so far:

Iowa Worker’s Almanac: Layoffs and news briefs, Aug. 29

Muscatine construction worker and victim of crime jailed: Jesús Hernández was shot when two people tried stealing his car. After a hospital stay, he went to pick up his car—and immigration enforcement officials detained him for being undocumented. Congress created a U-visa that protects victims of crime who assist in prosecutions, but so far the county attorney has refused…

(This story first appeared in the Iowa Worker’s Almanac, and is a subscriber exclusive.) You probably already know Iowa has a problem getting qualified health care workers: We’re 44th in the nation for physicians to patients, or 30% worse than the national average; The problem is particularly bad in our nursing homes; Iowa Republicans passed a bill to fund…

Fox guarding the henhouse: A former Tyson executive now oversees the safety of the US meat supply. (Sentient Media) Designed to discriminate: By gutting the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, Trump is making it easier for federal contractors to discriminate—all underwritten by your tax dollars. (EPI) Honduran, Nicaraguan, and Nepalese workers can stay, for now, after a judge halted Trump’s order to end Temporary Protective…

The Iowa DOGE task force wants to cut IPERS for new hires, the public employee retirement system that thousands of teachers, corrections officers, and more rely on to get them through their golden years. This does not sit well with those workers, the unions they’re covered by, or young folks thinking about a government job. Some on…