The North Scott Community School District support staff is organized into two chapters with SEIU Local 199. The bus drivers and the mixed unit, comprised of teachers aides, custodial, secretarial, and food service workers, have been improving wages and working conditions. The members at North Scott Community School District have been active with SEIU since the days before we had a statewide local. They have provided the local with leaders, political activists, and solidarity with other chapters for 10 years.

The Quad City Federation of Labor inducted Walt Knapper into its Hall of Fame at its 18th Annual East Central Iowa-North Western Illinois Banquet on January 24. It is a well-deserved honor for a man who has worked tirelessly to improve the lives of working people. To say that this SEIU Local 199 Executive Board Member and North Scott School District Bus Driver is a long-time union activist is decidedly an understatement.  

“It gives me a great feeling. I did not realize I had made such an impact on other people’s lives,” Walt said of receiving the award.

Walt Knapper

The 68-year-old husband, father and grandfather has been advocating on behalf of working people in Iowa and Illinois since 1984, when he first joined the United Food and Commercial Workers union at the Oscar Mayer plant. 
The decision to join the union was an easy one. After all, his uncle had been in the UAW for 35 years. “I joined right away,” Walt said recently. “They handed you a card in orientation. I didn’t have any qualms about it.” 

It wasn’t long before he became a steward in the plant. The chief steward asked, and with his usual willingness to jump right in, Walt said, “Yes.” Over the years he saved more than his share of people’s jobs.  It’s something of which he is very proud.

But Walt is not a one-union man. For nearly a decade he was both a member of UFCW and the association in the North Scott Community school district, which eventually became affiliated with the Service Employees International Union. In fact, it was Walt who convinced his co-workers to become part of SEIU.  Naturally, Walt was a steward in the North Scott chapter. Walt acknowledged that “not too many people belong to two unions.”

And Walt’s knowledge of organized labor came in handy when SEIU Local 199 was formed. Walt was on the steering committee to found the local.  “It was really inspiring,” he said of the effort to found the local in Iowa.  Since that time, Walt has served on the local’s Executive Board, including a stint as the vice president. “I’m really pleased at how far we’ve come,” he said. “But we have to keep moving ahead,” he said. Walt added that he hears all the time people saying they wish they had a union.

For Walt, one of the most important aspects of advocating for workers’ rights is the politics. “Politics and unions go together,” he said. Walt cannot even recall how many campaigns he has worked on.  He attended rallies, knocked doors, made phone calls, raised money, and did whatever else needed doing.  Walt, who served as Mayor of McCausland, Iowa for 12 years, even took a shot at running for the Iowa Legislature. He has no intention of slowing down either. “When you’re working for a candidate and they win, it’s a great feeling.”