Excuse my rudimentary editing skills in the video above. I wanted to take you with me to meet workers on strike at the Case New Holland plant in Burlington and hear from impacted workers as to why they are on strike.
This is the third column from my trip to the southeastern river town on the Mississippi. The first was from a potluck hosted by Susan and David Beckman. One of the influential guests they invited is a retired dentist who remembered when he opened his practice in 1967, he was impressed and admittedly envious of the benefits and wages union workers had at that time. Dental care was tremendous and those years were prosperous for the town of Burlington. Today, he said, benefits have diminished to the point where workers can’t even get time off to go the dentist, let alone have the same standard of care.
And the town isn’t as prosperous as it once was, impacting housing, local wages, and the town's economic health.
Below are aggregated stories about this strike:
Burlington Case Workers Still On Strike, July 27, 2022
Life on the picket line, August 30, 2022, Burlington Beacon
Burlington Hawk Eye, Franken, UAW, September, 2022
Iowa Workers Asked to Sacrifice for Italian Billionaire Owner, Iowa Starting Line, October 5, 2022
Christina Bohannan stresses support for labor during campaign stops in Burlington, Brad Vidmar, for the Hawk Eye, October 15, 2022
There is other good coverage of the strike from the Burlington Hawk Eye, but it is behind a paywall, so inaccessible without a subscription.
The Iowa Starting Line has begun covering labor issues as a developing beat. Founder Pat Rynard will be our guest for the October 17 Monday Zoom Lunch. All paid subscribers to this column will be invited to attend. If you would like to support the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat scholarship fund, please join our growing group of Zoomers:
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UAW ON STRIKE