Cathy Glasson, ICU Nurse, SEIU President, and My Choice for Governor

Captions: 1. Cathy Glasson, ICU nurse and SEIU president running for governor of Iowa. 2. Ryan Hall, a University of Iowa junior, running for the Iowa City Council.

As I came into the Mill 9/20/17 at noon with friend Pat Bowen, who is on the board of Citizens for Community Improvement and a leader of 100 Grannies, I met Ryan Hall first. He’s a junior at the University of Iowa and is running against incumbent Iowa City councilor Susan Mims. He’s a very brave young man. He said he looked hard for someone to run against Susan Mims, and when no one was available, he decided to run himself.

He’s good looking and personable, so that’s a good start. He’s also older (24) than being a UI junior would imply. He took three years off from college to work for Americorps. He’s as bright as a shiny new penny.

“We need systemic change,” he said, “a minimum wage of $15.00 an hour, and universal health care.”

Funny thing. Those are also Cathy Glasson’s platform issues. She’s the only gubernatorial candidate who supports a minimum wage of $15.00 an hour.

Many people, including Iowa City councilor Rockne Cole, COGS grad student Scott Olson, UI professor Packy Moran, John Green of Lone Tree, and Brad Pector, who said that without the Affordable Care Act, his health insurance would cost over $100,000 a year, spoke up for Cathy Glasson.

The first to speak up for Cathy, Pauline Taylor, a progressive Iowa City councilor, has known Cathy Glasson for 19 years. They've both been nurses together at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. They’ve both been members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

I knew Cathy before she became SEIU president and before she married Matt Glasson, who was at the time our labor attorney. Back when I knew him, Matt used to say, “You could probably fit all of the labor lawyers in the state in one café booth.” Matt characterizes himself as a labor educator today. He was always both.

I was an SEIU steward working for the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program. Our working conditions at HACAP were so deplorable that we joined SEIU in a right-to-work state (the right to work is the right to work for less money and few or no benefits). Don Maniccia, our then manager, decreed that he'd stop giving us Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July off as holidays and instead make us take those holidays off out of our meager 10 days a year vacation time. Even poorly paid Head Start teachers, social workers, secretaries, and clerks, mostly women, knew that was a screw job. So we voted to join the union. Don Maniccia didn’t even know he had to bargain with us once we formed a bargaining unit. We had to educate him by forcing him to the bargaining table.

Of course, years later, doing their corporate masters' bidding, Republicans made it harder to join unions in 2017 and ongoingly, harder to certify unions, difficult or impossible to collectively bargain with management, difficult or impossible to collect workman’s compensation if you’re hurt on the job . . . all of the labor rights that unions worked hard to pass into legislation. That’s why it’s important to vote for a union friendly gubernatorial candidate. You can’t get any more union friendly than Cathy Glasson. She’s the real deal. She's not just campaigning for governor. She's fighting for fast-food workers who are trying to get better pay.

“I’m tired of getting beat up,” she said as one worker to the rest of us. “One third of Iowa households can’t pay their bills. People can’t send their kids to college on less than $15 an hour.

“Kim Reynolds, the unemployment rate may be low, but the misery index is high. Iowans are ready to rise up for clean water, for fully funding education, for bringing back collective bargaining rights, for bringing back a strong workman’s compensation law for workers hurt on the job, and for a $15 minimum wage!”