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A taskforce appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds recommended eliminating the state pension system for new employees and replacing it with a 401(k)-style plan. Iowa DOGE’s proposal has sparked fierce, bipartisan opposition. Governor Kim Reynolds promised in 2018 she’d “protect and defend” Iowa’s public employee retirement program, IPERS. Approaching her final year as governor, her administration…

After years of consolidation in the agriculture industry, just a handful of companies control how our water is treated. When political leaders and regulators were focused on ensuring a distributed economy that supported diversified farming operations, small farmers, and thriving rural towns, there were less nitrates in the water. Unfortunately, when Iowa officials decided to…

Iowa Working Class News You Can Use: Iowa’s farmers are left with rising bills and few guarantees as President Donald Trump’s second trade war brews—creating a storm of financial pressure in the heart of the state’s farm economy that could ripple beyond 2025, especially if global partners retaliate and fragile trade truces unravel. Yet some farmers still have faith…

A Des Moines Starbucks could be the next Starbucks store to unionize by next month.

This week’s working news you can use: Job Corps cuts hurt Iowa’s employment: Despite its success, Ottumwa Job Corps—which offers free education and vocational training for at-risk youth ages 16 to 24—is among the 99 programs the Trump Administration is shutting down. The closure eliminates over 100 jobs in small-town Iowa, and displaces the 240…

Here’s a quick look at the week’s top news affecting Iowa workers and the workplace:

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.”

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 would unite under River Hills United, affiliating themselves with Teamsters Local 90. Rivers…

Meatpacking workers at JBS plants across the country, including two in Iowa, just ratified a first-ever national contract across all plants.

Trump’s attacks on the federal workforce, apprenticeships, and higher education, plus tariffs that threaten to increase prices on everything, could erase the strong labor market for Iowa graduates.