Cathy Glasson
Employees of Democrat Cathy Glasson’s campaign for governor are the first campaign staff in Iowa to unionize.
Glasson led the effort to form a union for University of Iowa Hospitals employees 18 years ago and she issued a statement saying she was honored and proud to recognize her employees’ union. Michael Fasullo says he and other Glasson (GLOSS-un) campaign workers wanted to set an example.
“It’s really important that electoral campaigns don’t just ask for votes from unions, but actually are doing everything they possibly can to uplift and elevate workers’ abilities to find new ways to form and join a union,” he said. “…I think it’s important that we walk that walk.”
According to the Campaign Workers Guild, Glasson’s is the second gubernatorial campaign in the country to unionize.
The Iowa Republican Party issued a statement, saying the other five Democratic candidates for governor will be “all talk and no action” if they fail to follow Glasson’s lead, since all six Democratic candidates say union bargaining rights are a priority for the party.
(By Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)