We Beat Back the 2011 Attacks on the Middle Class!
Prep for 2012 begins today. Be part of Missouri Jobs with Justice
While we successfully fought off the attacks on working people this year we know 2012 won’t be any different.
That’s why we need you to be part of Missouri Jobs with Justice. Can you give today for JwJ to be stronger for 2012?
1) Preserved the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
2) Protected the Minimum Wage
3) Earnings Tax Victory in St. Louis and Kansas City
4) Missouri Human Rights Act Remains Strong
These attacks will continue for years to come. Your donation means JwJ will be stronger than ever. That’s why we’re asking YOU to give for 2012.
1) Preserved the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
- Paycheck Deception JwJ collaborated with the AFL-CIO on In-District Constituent Meetings with key Representatives and Senators, organized volunteer canvasses and phone banks and moved key community allies to April 28 Workers’ Memorial Day events statewide.
- Right to Work for Less JwJ worked with our unions on major rallies that mobilized over 5,000 statewide. JwJ made sure clergy, non-union workers and other community supporters carried our
Message, “Stop Corporate Greed” to the public.
2) Protected Minimum Wage
- Cost of Living Adjustment Every year since labor passed a minimum wage increase by initiative in 2006, MO legislators have tried to repeal it. This year Jobs with Justice activists went to the capitol to demand legislators listen to the will of the people. More bi-partisan opposition than ever before voted against the bill to repeal minimum wage.
- Back Door Repeal The Missouri House tried to cut all funding to enforce child labor, minimum wage and prevailing wage laws by defunding nine full-time investigator positions from the Division of Labor Standards, removing the entire Wage and Hour Program. Hundreds of your emails poured into the Missouri Senate calling for their budget to fully reinstate all the Department of Labor investigators for our state’s Minimum Wage, Child Labor and Prevailing Wage Laws. The Governor signed the budget that reinstated the funding for seven inspectors to enforce these laws. This is still a reduction from 9 inspectors to 7. Jobs with Justice will be monitoring to determine how much this undermines law enforcement. It is, however, a far cry from the elimination of the program passed in the House budget. Because you stood up for what was right, together we protected some of our most basic, fundamental labor laws
3) Earnings Tax Victory in Kansas City and St. Louis
- Missouri JwJ, in coalition with our allies, played a key role in organizing the victory in April, where voters in Kansas City (78%) and St. Louis (89%) overwhelmingly decided to retain their municipal earnings tax. Over 800 volunteers worked with JwJ to educate voters on the critical services provided by the earnings tax and on the damage to public safety and basic city services if the earnings tax was defeated.
4) Protected the Missouri Human Rights Act
- A top priority of corporate interests in the state this year, Senate Bill 188 would have undermined key provisions of the Missouri Human Rights Act, rolling back of vital protections for Missouri workers. Protection from discrimination is a cornerstone of workers’ rights. Along other civil rights, social justice and labor organizations around the state, JwJ generated emails and calls to Governor Nixon’s office telling him to veto the bill and he did.
