John Deere union workers voted down a new contract agreement yesterday. Hundreds of John Deere union workers gathered at the TaxSlayer Center on Sunday in Moline to vote on the new tentative six-year contract. It would have covered more than 10,000 workers at 14 facilities across the United States. John Deere management said this means operations will continue as normal following this announcement. Union workers wanted increased wages, pensions, and health care benefits. In this new contract, employee health benefits stayed the same. But there is still no post-retirement health care. Instead the company offered a bonus. Negotiations will resume today, but union officials say if a new deal is not reached by Wednesday night, workers will strike beginning on Thursday morning.
From the Associated Press:
WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — A lawsuit filed against an Iowa hospital alleges that a 77-year-old man who was being treated for pneumonia died after the oxygen machine feeding his nasal tube was shut off. The Des Moines Register reports that David Hackley’s relatives sued Gundersen Health System on Friday over his January 2020 death. They say Hackley had been improving and that the Gunderson Palmer Lutheran Hospital in West Union was making arrangements to discharge him to a skilled nursing home for rehab before his supplemental oxygen was turned off. Within two days, he was dead.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Races for local school board seats have emerged as intense political battlegrounds in the upcoming Nov. 2 elections across the U.S. Parental protests that started during COVID-19 lockdowns are evolving into full-fledged board takeover campaigns. National conservative groups offering training academies for right-leaning candidates are helping stoke the challenges, which could have a dramatic effect on public education if they succeed. Takeover supporters say school boards and teachers unions have lost touch with parents, while some sitting board members say the challengers are political extremists. National education groups say the races are being used to test messaging ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has extended an order that will prevent state officials from enforcing a law that prohibits school districts from implementing mask requirements until the federal lawsuit challenging the law can be heard. Judge Robert Pratt had earlier issued a temporary restraining order preventing Gov. Kim Reynolds and Department of Education Director Ann Lebo from enforcing the law Reynolds signed in May. The order entered Friday issues a preliminary injunction that continues to prohibit the state from enforcing the law until the court case can be decided. Lawyers for Reynolds and Lebo immediately filed notice of an appeal with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which could reverse Pratt’s order or keep it in place.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Iowa’s head football coach, Kirk Ferentz, and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will not have to spend the team’s bye week answering questions from lawyers for Black former players who say they suffered discrimination. U.S. Magistrate Judge Helen Adams granted a motion Thursday to quash subpoenas that had asked the longtime Hawkeyes coach and his son to appear for depositions on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20. She said the depositions can be delayed until the football season is over in January, as the Ferentzes and lawyers for the university had requested. The former players say they were demeaned with racial slurs, held to different standards than white players and retaliated against for speaking out.
