Workers at Univ. of Iowa Health Care see wage increase ahead of planned rally

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - Just hours before Service Employees International Union (SEIU) workers at the University of Iowa were set to hold a “Rally for Raises and Fair Pay,” hospital officials announced that they were increasing raises from 1.3% to 4% for workers.

“We are so excited to see that for the first time in years UIHC is initiating a unit-wide raise above 2.1%. The timing of this is no coincidence. We have been organizing and making direct calls for raises to pay for years and now the morning of our rally we get this news. It just goes to show that direct, public action is the key to change. We’re not finished, this is just the start.”

The raise is the highest in over five years. The group will now turn the rally into a celebration.