Labor union support rises, Iowa workers face barriers to workplace protections

Labor union support rises, Iowa workers face barriers to workplace protections Categories: Politics State Politics Labor union support rises, Iowa workers face barriers to workplace protections Seventy-one percent of Americans approve of labor unions, Iowa’s recertification elections and restrictions shape how workers can maintain representation. Madelyn Johnson, Politics Reporter • October 14, 2026 Reece Schrader President of the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students William Tjeltveit checks emails in his personal office at Schaeffer Hall in Iowa City on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. Tjeltveit is a Ph.D student of the Department of History and has advocated for the concerns of federal student loan limits. As support for labor unions reaches a near-century high nationally, Iowa public-sector workers are navigating recertification elections and restrictions on collective bargaining that labor advocates say limit their ability to negotiate workplace protections. A September Gallup poll found 71 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, tying a recent high, while 47 percent want labor unions to have more influence.  In Iowa, public-sector unions are required to hold recertification elections under a law signed in 2017. The fall 2026 election began Oct. 13, and runs through Oct. 27, requiring unions to secure support from a majority of eligible bargaining-unit members, not just the majority of people who cast a vote, to remain their employees’ official representatives.  Jennifer Sherer, deputy director of the Economic Analysis and Research Network and director of the State Worker Power Initiative, said the growing support for unions reflects the concerns about economic equality, stagnant wages, and affordability among Americans.  Unions can help workers negotiate for a greater share of the economic value they produce, Sherer said, particularly when wages do not keep pace with productivity or the cost of living. “Workers across the board are very aware of that economic imbalance,” she said. “There’s an imbalance of power, both in their workplaces, but in the economy and our broader political system.”  Iowa’s recertification elections At the University of Iowa, the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, or COGS, is participating in the fall recertification election. The union represents graduate student workers in employment negotiations with the university.  COGS president Will Tjeltveit said the union is working to encourage graduate student workers to participate in the online election, which runs through Oct. 27. The union is organizing departmental representatives, conducting outreach, and contacting workers to increase turnout.  Unlike elections in which ballots cast determine the result, Iowa’s public sector recertification process counts nonparticipation against the union. A union must receive votes from more than half of all eligible workers to maintain its status as the bargaining representative.  “We need to get more than 50 percent of all the graduate workers here at Iowa to go out of their way to log into the system and vote yes,” he said. “We have no way of knowing who’s voted until the end of the recertification period.” Tjeltveit said COGS is aiming for 80 percent voter turnout. In previous recertification elections, at least 70 percent of graduate workers voted yes, and more than 99 percent of those who voted in the most recent election supported retaining the union, he said. RELATED: COGS reaches 30 years since its founding “The election is intentionally designed to take up a huge amount of unions’ time, money, and organizational capacity,” he said. “It is a pretty awful thing that the state requires public-sector unions in Iowa to do.” For unions across Iowa, the recertification process is a part of a broader debate over worker’s ability to maintain representation and negotiate with employers. Rick Moyle, executive director of the Hawkeye Area Labor Council, which represents 26 unions across eastern Iowa said the recertification process is framed as oversight, but in reality harms unions in the process.  “What it has done is cost unions money,” Moyle said. “And the goal was to bankrupt public sector unions when you require these recertification votes.”  Bargaining rights and workplace protection Iowa’s 2017 labor law also narrowed the subjects over which many public-sector unions can negotiate, according to Sherer. She said the changes have affected workers’ ability to negotiate protections involving workplace safety, scheduling, paid leave and other conditions. Those restrictions can also affect public employers’ ability to recruit and retain employees, Sherer said, as public-sector workers face pay disparities and fewer opportunities to negotiate workplace conditions. “If you take a place like Iowa City, the unions of educators in the schools have been able to maintain a fairly strong collective bargaining relationship with their school board because the public locally expects the school board to continue to bargain as full a contract as is legally allowed,” she said. “You could drive down the road and you could be in a different school district where the school board has refused to maintain that bargaining relationship.”  For COGS, these limits mean graduate workers continue to bargain over wages and employment protections while facing restrictions on bargaining over health insurance and other benefits, Tjeltveit said. Beyond contract negotiations, the union is campaigning to eliminate mandatory fees graduate workers pay per semester. Graduate workers pay $371 a semester in mandatory fees, according to Tjeltveit, and international workers have to pay an additional $250 fee. He said around one third of workers represented by COGS are international students.  Moyle said the only way to fix the public-sector system is the same way it started: by voting. He said people need to start paying less attention to advertisements and political rhetoric and start focusing on the actual policies being enacted.  “Working people are voting on social issues and not what actually puts food on their family table,” he said. 0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story More to Discover More in Politics Politifact Iowa | Republican congresswoman Miller-Meeks says she doesn’t own individual stocks. True. Hinson, Turek debate farms, Iowa data centers in last debate Economic and social factors influence youth activism More in State Politics Iowa farmers consider economic pressures as agriculture groups make election endorsements Christina Bohannan visits UI campus to speak about platform and policies Hinson, Turek discuss Iran war, tariffs in U.S. Senate debate About the Contributors Madelyn Johnson, Politics Reporter (she/her) Madelyn Johnson is a sophomore at the University of Iowa, studying English and Secondary Education. This is her second year on staff for The Daily Iowan. Outside of writing, Madelyn loves reading books, thrifting, and exploring local coffee shops in the area. Reece Schrader, Photojournalist Reece Schrader is a junior studying Marketing with a double major in Sports Media & Cuture. This is her second year with the Daily Iowan as a photojournalist, starting the second semester of her freshman year.