Safe working conditions, 5-day work weeks, equal pay for everyone, and child labor laws are the results of unions negotiations.

The average worker doesn’t realize the collective power of labor unions is responsible for the current working conditions they enjoy today.

The League of Women Voters hosted a Labor Union forum Thursday evening in Burlington. The panelists for this free, educational forum included Ryan Drew, president of the Des Moines/Henry County Labor Alliance; Jacob Nye, business manager, IBEW Local 13; Carrie Duncan, chief steward of International Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Betsy Wolf, Burlington Education Association and Marques Derby, CNH UAW.

“It’s in our DNA to want to inform as many (people) in our area of issues that are important to all of us,” said Martha Wolf, co-president of the local League of Women Voters chapter.

The non-partisan organization serves Des Moines County and the north Lee County areas.

“The Burlington community just got through a long strike with Case. I am concerned it wasn’t as much of a community issue as it should have been,” Wolf added.

The forum focused on what labor unions contribute to the communities and the overall impact union participation has on membership.

Not including Betsy Wolf, all of the panelists knew from an early age that post-secondary education was not the road to a successful career for them.

Drew joined an apprenticeship program right out of high school and Nye and Derby joined their apprentice programs following military service. Duncan was working in the school cafeteria for $9.45 an hour when she answered an ad in the newspaper for a machinist position at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant.

“I went from making vast quantities of mashed potatoes to warheads. But I had benefits I never had before. It completely changed my family’s life,” Duncan said.

Betsy Wolf said she had no choice but to attend college and gain a degree.

“My parents insisted. They both worked factory jobs and participated in unions,” she said.

She has been a public school teacher for the past 25 years and is involved in the Burlington Education Association, the school district’s teachers union.

“It’s more than economics,” Nye said. “Unions provide people with a voice. IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) started back in 1899 because of working conditions. At that time two out of three linemen died on the job. The first benefit we offered was a death benefit so those lineman’s families weren’t left destitute,” Nye said.

“I don’t know of any other mechanism that goes directly to the employees and finds out what is important to them,” Drew added.

All of the panelists weighed in on the bill before the Iowa legislature that will roll back some of the protections in the Child Labor Law and will allow high school students to join internship programs as part of their education.

Internships will provide on the job training in industries not normally open to anyone younger than 18. The bill has been designed to address a worker shortage in the state. This claim, along with the obvious health and safety issues for the children who may take part in these internships, were discussed Thursday evening.

“It only takes two seconds for a finger to be lopped off and that will affect that child for the rest of their life,” Derby said. “Let children be children and let them make adult decisions when they are out of school,” Derby added.

Betsy Wolf said she deals daily with 14-18-year-old children and while some may be mature enough to handle work in a manufacturing setting, many others are not.

“I don’t think you can make a law that affects every single one of them because there are a few that can handle it,” Wolf said. “There will be many in this program who won’t continue school past the mandatory age. They need to finish and get their diploma. We need to protect that,” Wolf added.

Drew said teaching students another skill won’t address the perceived worker shortage in Iowa. Instead, students should be shown what there is to do in the community after work hours.

“They need to be shown what there is to do here. They can go anywhere to work. We need to get them to stay here,” Drew added.

As for the future of labor unions, Derby said he sees an upward swing in membership and organization.

“The pandemic is when we started to value home life. We kind of lost that perspective over the past few decades. We are seeing Starbucks and Amazon organizing. We want to work an 8 hour day now,” Derby said.

“Unions are actively engaged in promoting the well-being of the community,” Duncan said.