Growing Solidarity: Stories from Central Iowa’s Union Farm Equipment Workers at John Deere

Growing Solidarity documents the life histories of over twenty members of the United Auto Workers Local 450 in Des Moines, Iowa, one of several UAW locals that garnered international attention through an historic strike against John Deere in 2021.

The project was funded through an over $70,000 Community Betterment grant from Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa, and coordinated through a partnership between the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and the University of Iowa Labor Center.

In addition to conducting and processing interviews, including photographs, John produced a podcast episode and led the design of a website hosted by the Digital Studies at the University of Iowa Libraries.

The project was assisted by UI History graduate student John Jepsen, who served as an intern through the Humanities for the Public Good initiative at the Obermann Center at the University of Iowa.

(Image by John McKerley, copyright the Iowa Labor History Oral Project, UI Libraries and State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City)