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Galindez writes: "Hundreds of fast food and healthcare workers and their supporters marched, rallied and even went on strike in Des Moines on Labor Day. The demands were for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to form a union."

Cathy Glasson, a Democratic Party candidate for governor, joined hundreds of Iowans outside of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines to call for higher wages and a union for healthcare workers. (photo: Des Moines Register)
Cathy Glasson, a Democratic Party candidate for governor, joined hundreds of Iowans outside of Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines to call for higher wages and a union for healthcare workers. (photo: Des Moines Register)


Iowans Put "Labor" Back in Labor Day

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

07 September 17

 

undreds of fast food and healthcare workers and their supporters marched, rallied and even went on strike in Des Moines on Labor Day.

The demands were for a $15-an-hour minimum wage and the right to form a union.

Des Moines area workers marched at the Burger King on Southeast 14th Street and Mercy Medical Center on Monday. They also closed a Burger King in Ankeny Sunday night.

Cathy Glasson, the president of SEIU Local 199, a registered nurse and Democratic candidate for governor, said that more than half of Iowa healthcare workers earn less than $15 an hour.

The CEO of Mercy-Des Moines’ “is making over $900,000, and most people caring for patients, cleaning the rooms, cooking the food, pushing the wheelchairs are making less than $15 an hour,” said Glasson.

Glasson was not the only candidate present at the event. Former School Board president Jon Neidaerbah, who is also running for the governorship, marched with the workers as well.

There were also two candidates who are seeking the Democratic Party nomination to challenge David Young for Congress. Paul Knupp, a local minister, was at the rally at Mercy. Pete D’Alessandro told the crowd at the Mercy rally, “The discussion starts at $15 an hour with me, not nuanced, not years down the road.” D’Alessandro, son of a union diaper delivery driver, also said he would make it easier for people to join unions and he credited his father’s union for his comfortable middle-class upbringing.

The day began at 5:15 a.m. at the offices of the Iowa CCI, where workers and supporters gathered to board buses and converge on a local Burger King for a 6 a.m. rally.

Dartanyan Brown, a local blues musician, got the day started by playing guitar as the crowd sang along to songs like “I’m Sticking to the Union.”

With Brown still playing, the crowd marched to the Burger King and circled it several times before stopping to hold a rally.

As two striking fast food workers spoke, two Burger King employees walked off the job and joined the rally, giving each other a high five as the crowd cheered.

Angel, a Dunkin Donuts employee, described her job duties and told the crowd that she is struggling to support her 1-year-old daughter on the wages she is paid.

Jake Long, who on Sunday night went on strike from an Ankeny Burger King, told his story. Jake started at Burger King when he was 18. It wasn’t long before his mother moved to South Dakota and Jake was supporting himself. Over the seven years he has been working at Burger King, he has become homeless. He is now living with his brother and trying to get back on his feet.

Rev. Alejandro Alfaro Santiz of the Trinity United Methodist Church MC’d both events. At one point he asked if this was the first protest for anyone in the crowd. Three young people’s hands went up. They were in their early twenties and worked at Taco Bell, Little Caesars, and Subway.

The fast food workers and their supporters then got back on the buses and headed to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines to join healthcare workers for an 8 a.m. rally.

While waiting for a bus from Iowa City, the group decided to pay a visit to the McDonald’s across from the hospital. Dozens went into the restaurant before being asked to leave by a security guard. They then circled the McDonald’s several times, chanting, “Hold the lettuce, hold the fries, we want wages supersized!”

The healthcare workers soon arrived, and the two groups marched together to rally in front of Mercy Hospital.

Glasson and D’Alessandro were joined on the back of a pickup truck that served as the stage by Mike Carberry, a county commissioner from Johnson County, who talked about running for office on a plank to raise the minimum wage. He reminded the crowd that he had succeeded, only to have the State legislature roll back wages.

Amy Smith, a CNA who works at Mercy in the Cath Lab, described making less than her fiancée, who works at Walmart. Iowa nurses are 50th in the nation in earnings. Many of them have substantial student debt.

The day ended with the crowd holding hands and Rev. Alejandro asking what they wanted. The response was “$15 and a Union.” It was a great way to spend Labor Day.



Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.


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