ATLANTIC, Iowa (KMTV) — Attracting and retaining workers, housing and childcare are constant themes throughout Southwest Iowa. It was the same when Sen. Joni Ernst visited Atlantic on Friday morning. She toured the Atlantic Bottling Company, a Coca-Cola bottling plant that has grown from 15 to 50 employees in the last few years.
- Ernst is the incoming chairperson of the Senate small business committee: "I hear this in every community across Iowa — is that workforce is really important."
- "If we want more people to engage in the workforce they have to know that their young ones will be cared for in a safe environment," Ernst said.
- President of Atlantic Bottling Company Rob Feeney says childcare, housing, and a skilled workforce go hand-in-hand: "When we're thinking long-term planning and a risk is workforce, that's an issue."
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BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Housing, workforce development, childcare: All issues that were on the table during Sen. Joni Ernst's visit to Atlantic on Friday.
I'm Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel.
I took the opportunity to ask the senator about those issues as well as what can be expected from an incoming trump administration.
Halfway between Omaha and Des Moines, leaders believe Atlantic is well positioned as a bedroom community and as a place for local businesses if it can attract and keep workers.
Ernst is the incoming chairperson of the Senate small business committee: "I hear this in every community across Iowa — is that workforce is really important."
A theme echoed a few weeks ago when I visited Atlantic's childcare center. The community has outgrown the space and without childcare it's hard to keep young families let alone bring in new ones. And that affects potential employers.
"If we want more people to engage in the workforce they have to know that their young ones will be cared for in a safe environment," Ernst said.
Atlantic bottling produces approximately seven-and-a-half million cases of soda a year. President Rob Feeney says childcare, housing, and a skilled workforce go hand-in-hand.
"When we're thinking long-term planning and a risk is workforce, that's an issue," he said.
His plant has expanded from 15 to 50 employees in the last couple of years; a $15 million investment in Atlantic.
"We've kind of upskilled some of our experienced drivers to be our coaches and teachers,” Feeney said. “We look for the people and they can do the training in-house and we can send them off to do the training as they need."
"Workforce, housing, childcare. The same message everywhere, really, across all of rural America,” said State Sen. Tom Shipley.
He believes there aren't enough workers to replace the retiring Baby Boom workers. I asked him if immigration was part of the solution.
"It's got to be addressed in a fashion to where we know we're getting in people that really are sincerely coming to work, " he said.
That's sure to be a topic for the next Congress.
Senator Ernst told me she expects more immediate help for small businesses will come with a new tax and jobs act. That's on the docket for January when D.C. gets down to business.
