Lawmakers don’t respect Iowa workers

What does a state government look like when it is controlled by people who have not had to perform blue-collar work in their lifetime for any extended period? What does a state government look like when it's run by those who come from inherited wealth and who are ignorant of what it is like to work paycheck to paycheck? What do the laws look like in such a land?

You need not look far to answer those questions, only to our Capitol in Des Moines. Iowa is undoubtedly one of the states controlled by state representatives and state senators who have forgotten or remain clueless about what it is like to toil for a living. No one with any empathy or respect for working people would pass the laws they have passed in Iowa.

They gutted public sector collective bargaining rights in 2017 through House File 291, then essentially lowered the minimum wage when they passed House File 295, preempting counties from setting their local minimum wage ordinances when their local leaders realized something needed to be done to help working families.

In 2017, the Republican-controlled legislature lowered benefits for injured workers hurt on the job and made it harder to claim benefits by passing House File 518. They passed laws that lower child labor standards and penalties for companies caught violating child labor laws through the passage of Senate File 542 in 2023. They lowered the number of weeks that workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own can draw unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 16 weeks. All surrounding states now have better unemployment benefits than Iowa.

They are on the verge of passing another unemployment bill to cut unemployment taxes for businesses. It turns out that those 10 weeks of unemployment benefits they cut from workers in 2022 add up, so we need to give that money to the same corporations that lay off employees while raking in record profits.

They have ignored wage theft and refused to enact any real policy that would enforce the prosecution of bad actors who steal workers’ wages. Common Good Iowa reported in 2022 that employers are stealing over $900 million a year from workers in the state.

They have taken local control away from municipalities, counties, and schools by eliminating the local government’s ability to require that construction jobs be awarded to educated, qualified, and legitimate contractors who live and run their businesses locally. Senate File 603 targets contracts for public projects. At first, it was not a terrible bill — it had bipartisan support. Then it was amended in the Iowa House and rammed through in 24 hours. This punishes union and non-union contractors that have established training programs in Iowa.

Without going into more sickening detail, there is more this out-of-touch Republican-controlled legislature and Republican governor have done to hurt working families. This will continue until working people stand up to them and vote them out of office. How long will blue-collar workers continue to elect people who do not relate to us or care about us?

Rick Moyle is executive director of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council AFL-CIO.