Iowa Starbucks Workers Want a Nice Hot Cup of Union Power
by Dave Leshtz See the full article published in The Nation
A line of 25 people, mostly college students, snaked from the counter to the front door at the Starbucks in downtown Iowa City, Iowa, on April 21. A dozen “mobile orders” of lattes and cappuccinos sat waiting near the tip jar, which on this day was stuffed with bills.
Jen Sherer, president of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, cheerfully offered “Starbucks Workers United” stickers to customers. “Kirk Ferentz was here,” she said with a grin. Ferentz, head coach of the University of Iowa’s Hawkeyes football team, is due to receive $7,000,000 in compensation this year, making him the 13th-highest-paid coach in the country, according to USA Today. Starbucks workers at the store told me he picks up a coffee to go each morning—without leaving a tip; Sherer said that she’d offered Ferentz a sticker, which he accepted but declined to put on.
Starbucks is not the only workplace with reinvigorated union activity in Iowa City. The venerable Englert Theatre, refurbished and turned into a live performance venue after over 100 years as a movie theater, is one of the oldest businesses in town. Last November, its employees voted unanimously to join the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 690.
The past year and a half has seen several successful strikes in southeast Iowa, including one by UAW workers in Davenport and one by Bakery Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers in Cedar Rapids. One of the toughest union battles in the area is currently being fought by United Electrical Workers Local 896, also known as Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS), representing about 2,000 teaching and research assistants at the University of Iowa.
From our inbox yesterday afternoon – Blue Statehouse Alert from Iowa House Dems
STATE BUDGET STALLS ADJOURNMENT
Every year, the last thing that must be passed before lawmakers can adjourn is setting the state’s budget. There are seven budgets that must be approved before legislators can go home for the year. We have yet to see the final details on all seven budgets and, as usual, Democrats are being left out of the budgeting process.
As we head into the 1st week of overtime, House Democrats are dedicated to putting people over politics to invest in our schools, lower costs for Iowans, and provide expanded access to reproductive care. We are committed to transparency of our tax dollars and public awareness of the legislative process.
Be sure to contact legislators with your priorities on how our tax dollars should be spent. As we begin to see the budget details unfold, we will continue to keep Iowans updated on important pieces in each bill.
CHILD LABOR ROLLBACKS STILL ON THE DOCKET
A proposal by Iowa Republicans drastically weakens Iowa’s current child labor protections, which could jeopardize Iowa businesses with federal labor regulations.
Rather than address our state’s labor shortage by offering fair wages and comprehensive benefits, Iowa Republicans are relaxing child labor laws so younger Iowans may fill the employment gap. HF 647 would:
– Allow 14-and-15-year-olds to work six-hour nightly shifts in industrial laundries, meat freezers, or on light manufacturing production lines;
– Allow 16-and-17-year-olds to serve alcohol at establishments unsupervised;
– Employers can now recruit 14-18-year-olds for a “work-based learning program” that may require hazardous job duties.
– Some of the most extreme proposed changes to Iowa’s child labor laws include eliminating the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s authority to require work permits for minors in certain occupations and allowing the state new discretion to waive, reduce, or delay civil penalties if an employer violates any child labor law.
Rather than addressing Iowa’s persisting labor shortage by offering fair wages and a safe working environment, the House Majority is relaxing child labor laws for younger Iowans to fill the state’s employment gap. These proposed policies skirt federal labor requirements, which protect minors from being exploited, injured, or killed.
BLUE STATEHOUSE ALERT LIVE SCHEDULED FOR AFTER SESSION
As we head toward adjournment with late-night debates expected most of this week, we’re going to cancel the Blue Statehouse Alert LIVE again this week. Apologies for the short notice on cancellation last week!
While we miss our chats every week, we will be hosting another after we adjourn. We plan to continue our LIVE events on Facebook monthly through the summer and fall. We will continue to keep you informed via email and on our Facebook page at: facebook.com/iowahousedemocrats.
President Biden got some laughs at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend but Roy Wood, Jr. was definitely the star of the show as far as great jokes. He seemed to just be cruising along for awhile handing out gotcha zingers right and left, fairly equally to both sides, then when you least expected it, he swooped in and killed it when he got to Clarence Thomas. If you missed it this will improve your Monday.
We here at blogforiowa would like to extend our thanks and admiration for the young people that stood up to the Republican controlled legislature after Republicans passed yet another insane bill that puts more guns into wider circulation. Thanks for you courage youngsters!
While the main stream media reported the protest in a very aloof way, iowastartingline.com once again brought the story to life telling us what school shootings do to real students. Big thanks to Ty Rushing for this descriptive narrative:
Valley High School Senior Luke Rowley remembers what it was like going to school the day after the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in which 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman.
“I remember a sense of dread in the hallways, students at Valley were terrified for their life—students everywhere were,” he said. “I remember there was a balloon that popped and I could look around the hallways and see fear on people’s faces because they were terrified something as innocent as a balloon was a gun.”
“That is horrifying [that] the first thing my mind goes through and the first thing every student’s mind goes to when they hear a loud noise is that there is a shooting,” he continued.
Luke shared that story during a Monday protest in the rotunda of the Iowa Statehouse. The protest (which included a “die-in” where students feigned being dead) was put on by student organizers from March for Our Lives Iowa and Iowa WTF to oppose legislation that would make it easier to bring guns on the campuses of Iowa schools, community colleges, and universities.
Rushing goes on to explain the bills in the hopper in the legislature. More guns in more places they shouldn’t be.
We all know the daily horror of mass shootings goes on at a pace of more than one a day in this country It has gotten to the point that mass shootings are so normalized that many get only a brief mention on the local news. Sometimes mass shootings are so heinous they get national attention. Isn’t that sick? A mass shooting needs to be heinous to get so much as a mention in the daily news.
School shootings will continue. This is often the time of year there seems to be an uptick in amount of shootings. Passing a bill that puts more guns in the area of schools is literally like firemen pouring gas on a blaze and claiming that more fire will stop the fire. (Yes I know what a fire-break is – that is not this analogy).
“Thoughts and prayers” is totally useless and only serves to make the utterer of that phrase feel like they did something while doing nothing. If there were a being who could do something to better the situation, they are not doing their job.
We have the power to do something about this scourge that kills 40 to 50,000 Americans a year and wounds and maims hundreds of thousands of others and costs our country multi-billions of dollars. Reread that second amendment. It is not a prescription for everyone to be armed to the teeth and looking to kill.
Gun sales should be limited as to who can buy and what they can buy. Guns should be engineered in such a way that only the registered owner can use it. Insurance should be mandatory for owning a gun,just as it is for an automobile. It can be done if we have politicians who will stand up for the good of the citizens.
And once more to the youngsters that protested in the state legislature Monday, Thank You and Keep it up!
credit to iowastartingline.com for this great pic of the protest at the Iowa capitol
7th grader stops school bus after driver passes out (1:30)
Tomorrow May 1st is International Worker’s Day often more commonly known as May Day. No plan to go into a long discussion of the day, just to note that while pretty much that while most of the rest of the world observes the day, we in the US do not observe a recognition of labor on May 1st, but rather consign it to the first Monday of September.
Why this is true seems to be because May Day and its connection has been linked to communism in the murky past shortly after the Communist Manifesto was published. Thus May Day in the eyes of American paranoid leaders became a communist day. The Catholic Church even tried to offset the power of May Day by making May 1a somewhat major feast – the feast of St. Joseph (Jesus’ step father) the Worker.
But no matter how you slice it since the reign of St. Ronnie the Reagan worker’s influence and status in the US has been diminished to almost nothing.
If Tucker Carlson applies for a job at blogforiowa, I am sure we will turn him away. He is simply not smart enough.
A) Let’s start with the Carlson story. This is not his first firing. What two other cable newsers dumped Carlson previously?
B) One more – it’s not like Carlson needs a job. He is the heir to what fortune?
C) In a similar story with less star power, what other cable newser was also dumped on Monday?
D)Fani Willis, Fulton County Georgia prosecutor, indicated that the grand jury will be issuing indictments in the election tampering cases in about what time frame?
E) In Iowa students demonstrated at the state capitol against new laws concerning what new laws?
F) Trial began in New York City as E. Jean Carroll sued who for defamation of character?
G) Following the denial of one more appeal, former VP Mike Pence was seen doing what Thursday?
H) US House Republicans barely passed a bill Wednesday addressing in their odd way what looming potential crisis?
I) Former Miami Heat basketball star Dwayne Wade has moved his family from Florida due to what?
J) Again in Florida what state official has been caught altering data to make it appear that covid vaccinations were much less effective than they actually were?
K) Fittingly, what Irish born American labor leader was born on May 1st, 1830?
L) Missouri’s Republican AG, Andrew Bailey put up and then removed a form online that neighbors could turn in their neighbors who do what?
M) The corruption caucus in the SCOTUS doubles: What other Justice besides Thomas has been caught in an unreported land deal?
N) The Mississippi River in Iowa is experiencing record flooding as record snow pack is melting in what states?
O) Speaking of the Mississippi, what were conditions of the lower River at and below Memphis last summer?
P) Friday bills banning abortions in what two far right states failed in votes by the state legislatures?
Q) Sports betting is trending down in Iowa. How much did Iowans bet in March of 2023?
R) What former Cincinnati mayor and daytime TV pioneer who died Thursday was once an up and coming star in the Democratic Party?
S) Another one bites the dust: What well known retailer announced it would close up shop and liquidate its stock?
T) Harry Belafonte died Tuesday. Known for calypso and political activism, where was Belafonte born?
{Note – too much this week to quit}
U) Carolyn Bryant Donham died last week in Mississippi. She is the woman who accused what male teen of whistling at her that led directly to his death?
V) Dennis Maliq Barnes of New Orleans, La. Has earned a record $9 million of what this spring?
W) The Iowa legislature voted to restrict the power of what state office now headed by the only state elected Democrat?
X) Disney sued who last week?
Y) In Montana, Gov. Greg Gianforte was lobbied by what close relative to not sign the anti-trans bill coming from the state legislature?
Z) Finally what international newser immediately offered Tucker Carlson a job?
President Biden will never force middle class and working families to bear the burden of tax cuts for the wealthiest — which is exactly what MAGA Republicans just voted to do. – Hillary Clinton tweet
Few have the credibility that Professor Robert Reich has on the economy (3 minutes):
We need to add some thoughts about what has gotten us into this media frenzied Republican exploited so called “debt crisis.” No matter how anyone looks at it, Republicans are almost full responsible for the debt situation we now have. But they have no real responsible proposals to address the situation. All they want to do is exploit the situation as leverage to force through some of their most odious proposals that would do major damage to the most vulnerable in our society. Instead of bargaining in good faith through the budget process, they create a crisis situation to force their half baked ideas.
The proposals they are bringing to the table include cuts to Medicaid, forced work for Medicaid, cuts to hunger programs, cuts to preschool and child care, cuts to rental assistance, cuts to assistance for the disabled, cuts to schools, cuts to veteran’s. Medical care, cuts to Meals on Wheels.
The list goes on and on. If there is a program that helps the poor, the elderly, the disabled, in short anyone who is not in their eyes ‘human’ enough, radical Republicans a re there with a scalpel ready to cut that program drastically.
You know what isn’t in there? I mean if these far right radical Republicans were truly worried about the debt? What’s not in there are tax raises. Not tax raises for the poor and middle class who are barely scraping by these days, but tax raises for the wealthy, for the well off and the well connected. These folks have gotten huge cuts in taxes over the past 50 years.
Well, guess what, well off citizens. Your country needs you to step up and start paying what is truly your fair share. But the far right radical Republicans will not even entertain the idea. They take huge bribes to keep taxes low, low, low for the rich.
So here we are. Since Richard Nixon the far right has been spending like drunken frat boys on Daddy’s credit card. Wars – Vietnam, Granada, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afghanistan – Republicans were there to blow big bucks for very poor reasons.
At the same time they cut taxes for the rich – Regan, Bush 1, Bush 2 but especially Trump. Trump himself added well over a 25% to the debt.
So the wealthy, well to do and well connected have been been making out like fat rats. Want to know another secret? Who do you think is making big bucks off America’s debt? The wealthy who have money to buy the Treasury bills that are paying interest to finance the debt that the radical Republicans have driven up with their wars and tax cuts for the rich. Paraphrasing Smedley Butler – it’s a racket.
When we look at the Democratic presidents over that period we see that Clinton, Obama and now Biden have made significant cuts in the deficits they were handed by Republican presidents. Clinton even had a plan to pay off the debt. Had Bush 2 not been selected by SCOTUS and we had let the vote counting play out, a President Gore would have executed the debt paydown.
But SCOTUS selected Bush 2 and he was able to turn things way around and drive us hugely into debt. Iraq, Afghanistan and huge tax breaks for the rich were his tools.
It fogs my mind why anyone would ever think a Republican is more fiscally responsible. At this juncture we have radical far right Republicans threatening our country and every one of its citizens with perhaps the worst depression ever if they force to country to default on its debt. Their handling of their own created debt crisis also threatens international relations and stability.
We also have a Republican at the head of the Federal Reserve acting almost without brakes as he raises interest rates in a manner that is almost certain to cause a recession and major job losses.
So you look at recent history and the results are glaring: Democrats are good for the economy; Republicans leave the economy in a shambles. Remember in 2008 when Bush 2 basically checked out and everybody looked to Obama to drag the country and the world back from the brink of yet another Republican depression?
If Republicans are serious they would cancel their tax cuts and raise taxes on the wealthy. But they aren’t serious. And they certainly do not care if anyone below their rich friends are crushed in their economic disasters. That includes their religious adherents who vote for the unholiest of people in some delusion that these people really care about them. What a delusion.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries tells the truth (1:30):
'How dare you lecture America about fiscal responsibility?'
During a debt ceiling debate, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries ripped into the GOP & past Republican presidents like Reagan, Bush, and Trump over tax cuts for the wealthy & exploding deficits during their terms. pic.twitter.com/tOkqF8Uwen
Remember the 2022 midterms when the last two congress members who represented Iowa’s southeast corner – one Republican and one Democrat – both endorsed the Democratic candidate for the seat? Both did so because they wanted the candidate who they felt best represented Iowa. Jim Leach and Dave Loebsack were right.
Wednesday all of Iowa’s representatives voted the party line in supporting Speaker McCarthy’s version of a debt limit bill. No independent thinkers in the Iowa caucus. No one that could that would have the backbone and say that this is a really bad bill. And the bill is bad says analysis by Moody’s Analytics on Monday.
The plan proposed by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling in exchange for cuts in government spending would slow growth and cut employment, Moody’s Analytics said in a note Monday.
According to the ratings agency’s research arm, if the draft presented by McCarthy on April 17 were passed as is, it would lead to a drop of 0.6 percentage points in US potential growth for 2024, as well as the elimination of 780,000 jobs.
Unemployment would reach 4.6 percent, against 3.5 percent in March 2023, as compared to a scenario in which a new ceiling was approved without conditions.
This is the kind of thing that former Representatives Leach and Loebsack were warning us about. The person that now fills their former seat, Mariannette Miller-Meeks seems to have no clue what the debt ceiling is and what the effects of her votes are. Miller-Meeks appears to be merely filling a seat and casting votes as she is told. Neither Leach nor Loebsack did that. There was always reasoned thought behind their votes.
The Miller-Meeks vote was pointed out in Thursday’s High Five email from Progress Iowa:
1. REP. MILLER-MEEKS VOTES FOR HUGE IOWA CUTS: While Rep. Miller-Meeks is busy touting her vote on the GOP’s debt bill, she forgot to mention the devastating impact the legislation will have on everyday Iowans. With cuts to rental assistance, low-income schools, and Medicaid this legislation is wrong for Iowa. Please click to tweet or share this content on various social media platforms to hold Rep. Miller-Meeks accountable.
Click to Tweet: Hey @RepMMM, care to explain why you voted to cut funding for Iowa’s Medicaid recipients, rental assistance, and schools serving low-income children?! Would appreciate an answer before you brag about this GOP budget bill again. #Iowa
“Let us take food and healthcare away from millions of American families or we’ll cause an economic collapse” might seem like an extreme political position, but it’s mainstream among House Republicans, who on Wednesday passed a bill to do just that and a whole lot more.
Dubbed the “Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023” by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California), and the “Default on America Act” by Democrats, the proposal seeks $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade and to limit future spending on everything from food assistance for children and seniors to childcare to veterans healthcare.
In Iowa, an estimated 132,000 people could lose access to Medicaid health insurance if the bill were to become law, according to estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Estimatesfrom the federal government suggest that under McCarthy’s plan:
92,000 Iowans would lose access to food assistance
2,900 kids in Iowa would lose preschool and child care slots.
5,100 Iowa families would lose access to rental assistance, including older adults, those with disabilities, and families with children.
As many as 70,000 kids with disabilities in Iowa would face reduced support.
Iowa schools serving nearly 110,000 low-income children would lose $25 million in funding, equivalent to removing about 400 teachers and other personnel from classrooms.
Iowa veterans would lose 77,500 outpatient doctors visits, including for issues like mental health and substance disorder treatment and suicide prevention.
Thousands of Iowa seniors would lose access to Meals on Wheels.
We thank Reporter Vakil for fleshing out the real damage such a bill could do to our friends and neighbors. While we are pointing a finger at Miller-Meeks, remember that the whole Iowa congressional delegation marched in lock step to pass this horrendous bill.
This bill will also reverse the very successful Democratic Inflation Reduction Act bill passed last year that has created jobs, brought businesses back to our shores and is taming inflation. Make no doubt that Speaker McCarthy’s goal is not the good of Americans, but to make President Biden look bad – even if he (McCarthy) and his party has to wreck our country’s economy.
Think when you vote. With Republicans in charge of any piece of the economy, disaster looms. Recent history is filled with examples from hoover on down.
Tuesday, May 9 6pm CDT Thought leader and inspiring ProfessorBob McChesney will speak with the Media and Democracy Project! Professor McChesney authored “Rich Media Poor Democracy.” He is an expert on media and democracy issues – we will discuss with him his proposed solution to the “local journalism crisis” called the Local Journalism Initiative. We will ask him to discuss the impacts of Fox and NewsCorp on American media and democracy. Sign up here: https://www.mobilize.us/mediademocracyproject/
OUR ACTIONS THIS WEEK: ACTION #1 Your FCC is still non-functional since the smear campaign that sabotaged Gigi Sohn’s confirmation. Her candidacy and the best interests of the American people were undermined by Right Wing extremists, Big Telecom, and by Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ / Fox propaganda media empire.
So what can you do to help get a functioning FCC?
Call President Biden and ask him to “nominate a public interest-minded candidate for the FCC that is a champion of Net Neutrality, and supports affordable BroadBand access for all.”
White House Phone: 202-456-1111, or comments 202-456-6213 & https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Want to be a superstar to #FixMediaNow? Here is our bi-weekly guide with additional actions you can take.
n the news…
We are still watching how the media reports on the Dominion vs Fox lawsuit. Unfortunately, most media folks have framed the story as, “Fox viewers made Fox hosts lie” – which masks the intentional unreality fabricated by Fox propaganda over decades. Also under-reported is the relative small size of the Dominion-Fox settlement for the parent Fox Corporation (currently valued at $17.5Billion) and the likelihood they will get to write off some/most of it. We’ve got work to do. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work calling out “reports” that blame the viewers of Fox as opposed to the masterminds behind Fox.
Media Accountability Corner: ACTION #2 Make certain that Media Coverage of the corruption of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas continues to be reported on – and accurately.
Please write Letters to the Editor / outreach to media organizations/journalists to hold them accountable with your feedback. Make sure the media reports on the corruption of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his hyper-partisan wife Ginni Thomas. It is worthy of front page news and further coverage and should not be buried – as is Ginni Thomas’ under investigated alleged involvement in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt.
Our Media and Democracy Hero of the Week: Jen Reitman
Please read this powerful piece by Jen of DAME Magazine – calling attention to the immorality of neutral media coverage and calling for media orgs to apply a lens of morality to coverage of issues such as abortion rights, gun violence and racism. “The actions of elected officials, the lies knowingly told on Fox, the billionaires’ dark money. What they’re doing is not simply advancing their policies via “politics,” but rather fueling a wholesale movement of immorality. It’s time the media start to frame it that way“. Link here: https://mailchi.mp/damemagazine/the-moral-lens-6047761
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s decision to slash support for survivors of sexual assault would be misguided and cruel anytime, but especially during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. AG Bird needs to reverse course and make sure Iowa survivors get the help they need.
“..That is why it was so incredibly shocking that during Sexual Assault Awareness month to see Iowa’s new Attorney General Brenna Bird choose to use her power not to help survivors heal, most of whom are children, but instead to cut off their support for taking care of their bodies and helping them heal.”
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
Iowa Starbucks Workers Want a Nice Hot Cup of Union Power
Iowa Senate Democrats on 
Blog For Iowa 