(Radio Iowa) – The latest federal data shows about 105-thousand union members were in Iowa’s workforce last year. That’s seven percent of the entire workforce and the first increase in statewide union membership in four years. Paul Iverson at the University of Iowa Labor Center says it’s partly due to the impact of the pandemic.

Recent strikes — and even the threat of a strike — are drawing attention to the labor movement’s impact, according to Iverson.

Last week Iverson visited the picket line at Thombert in Newton where 84 United Auto Workers went on strike August 1st. Thombert is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of polyurethane wheels for electric forklifts. “It’s an issue of we want a safe workplace, we want safe working hours, we want pay and benefits commensurate with the profit that we are making for you,” Iverson says, “so all of those things go into this strike.”