This Frequency episode is devoted to labor union organizations, which have been in place for more than 100 years, as a means for workers at varying businesses and government entities to have a voice in workplace issues and benefits and pay rates.
We are having this discussion in advance of the annual Labor Day holiday, which always falls the first Monday of September, and which became a holiday 130 years ago in 1894.
Such labor unions have been the vehicle for workers to collectively negotiate for higher wages and benefits and to improve conditions in the workplace. There are millions of union members in America from all walks of life.
To assess the lay of the land for labor unions in 2024, we hear from two union members and officials, with Sage Lewis, who is a law enforcement employee for the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office and a member of the Communications Workers of America, and Amy DeGroot-Hammer, a Uniserv Director for the Iowa State Education Association. Also on hand is J.D. Scholten, a Democratic state representative from Sioux City.
They share details on the annual Labor Day picnic in Sioux City, why they think it is necessary to have such a holiday, and their journeys of first joining a union and what that has meant in their lives.
We also have a discussion on a new collective bargaining law that was put in place in 2017 in Iowa by Republican state lawmakers, and which was vigorously opposed by organized labor.
That law limits most public-sector union contract negotiations to base wages, while getting rid of such issues as health insurance and supplemental pay as mandatory items for bargaining.
Scholten, Lewis and DeGroot-Hammer also weigh in on a series of union recertifying votes that will take place for two weeks in Iowa, and how where unions are being added in 2024 looks much different than the historical picture.
Click on the audio link above to hear the entire show.
*What's The Frequency, Episode 31.
