ON FEB. 5 YOU CAN protect Missouri’s Constitutution and STOP Ward Connerly’s attack on Affirmative Action!

 Ward Connerly, a rich California political operative, is trying to amend Missouri’s Constitution and ban Affirmative Action in our state through an initiative petition. 

Connerly is targeting Missouri and four other states during the 2008 presidential election.  His petioners are on the street right now, asking voters to sign a petition to “stop inequality.”

WE CAN stop Connerly and his paid political operatives and protect Missouri’s Constitution from outside political influences!

TAKE ACTION NOW:  Sign up NOW to help our “DECLINE TO SIGN” CANVASS outside polling places on Feb. 5, by email to aaron@stl-jwj.org or by calling 314-644-0466, ext. 12.  Various shifts and locations are available.  You will be trained for Decline to Sign cavasses so you can help stop Connerly’s paid political operatives from gathering signatures for their dangerous ballot initiative.

Upcoming Decline to sign trainings:

At Epiphany UCC – 2911 McNair Avenue 63118
  –Thursday Jan. 31st, 6pm

At Teamsters Local 688 – 4349 Woodson Road 63134
  –Saturday February 2nd, 10 am, and 2 pm
  –Sunday February 3rd, 10 am
  –Monday February 4th, 10 am, and 2 pm

Don’t let them send Missouri backwards!

California businessman Ward Connerly is trying to ban affirmative action in five states including Missouri, halting efforts for equality for women and African-Americans, Latinos, New Americans and other ethnic minorities in Missouri. His deceptively-named “Missouri Civil Rights Initiative” attempts to trick Missouri voters into passing an an amendment to Missouri’s Constitution that would tie our hands on countless efforts to build more dynamic and diverse classrooms, congregations, workplaces and communities.

Jobs with Justice is working as part of the broad-based WE CAN Coalition to oppose this anti-affirmative action initiative. JwJ is working with ACORN to coordinate grassroots volunteer efforts to prevent Connerly’s “hired guns” from collecting enough signatures to qualify for the November 2008 ballot in Missouri.

Tell us how you want to be involved….

This year’s Grinch contest shattered ALL the records! Campaigning at the Grinch party reached a fever pitch and before the night was through 14,268 votes were cast, raising $14,268 for JwJ’s organizing against the attacks on our community represented by of ALL this year’s nominees.

The come-from-behind champion was Illinois Distributing Company. IDC’s drivers, members of Teamsters Local 50, were at the party in force to campaign their candidate. In the six weeks of early voting, they also lined up strong support from sister union locals in Southwestern Illinois and Teamsters locals around the country. The nomination was made by JwJ Member Organization the Southwestern Illinois Labor Council.

Illinois Distributing Company distributes Anheuser-Busch products in St. Clair, Monroe and SW Madison Counties.

Learn more about why Illinois Distributing Company took this year’s prize

See a complete list of A-B products to boycott in support of IDC drivers

Let’s not forget the incredible campaigns run on behalf of electing Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and Affirmative Action opponent Ward Connerly this year’s Grinch. Both candidates earned thousands of votes from JwJ members, and lively campaigns from community and labor leaders.

To learn more about this year’s candidates you can click on the names below:

• Matt Blunt
• George Bush
• Ward Connerly
• Illinois Distributing
• Rex Sinquefield
• Keith Schafer

Special thanks to the American Postal Workers Union Gateway DAL for graciously hosting this year’s party.

Friday, August 31, 2007 at 7 pm

at the Regional Arts Commission, 6128 Delmar, 63112 

Each Labor Day weekend, in cities across the country, thousands of congregations participate in Labor in the Pulpits / on the Bimah / in the Minbar. The goals of Labor in the Pulpits are to educate congregations about connections between faith and work, inspire new friendships between people in religious communities and unions, present congregations with opportunities for acting on the social teachings of their faith groups, and give union members a deeper experience of their faith in action.

For more information on Labor in the Pulpits, or to involve your congregation, contact Tamela Franks at tamela@stl-jwj.org , or 314.644.0466 x14. You can join the Missouri congregations and faith organizations already committed to participating in Labor in the Pulpits / on the Bimah / in the Minbar this Labor Day weekend by filling out a Labor in the Pulpits Participation Form

2007 PARTICIPATING CONGREGATIONS

St. Louis City:
Central Reform Congregation, Rabbis Susan Talve and Randy Fleisher
Community Church of God, The Rev. Douglas Parham
Compton Heights Christian Church, The Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Foster
Epiphany UCC, The Rev. Mary Albert
Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Fresh Start Bible Church
Garden Light United Church of Christ, The Rev. Jonathon Edwards
Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Fr. Richard Creason
Lane Tabernacle CME, The Rev. James T. Morris
Mount Airy MB, The Rev. Charles Brown
New Hope Worship Center, Bishop Anthony Taylor
Pilgrim Congregational UCC, The Rev. Cindy Bumb
Rockwell House, the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Washington University, The Rev. Andrew Benko
St. Cronan Parish, Fr. Gerry Kleba
St. Johns Episcopal, Pastor Teresa Mithen
St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church, Fr. Tom Wyrsch
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, The Rev. Lydia Speller 
Shiloh MB, The Rev. JD Clark
Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet
Westside Missionary Baptist, The Rev. Ronald Bobo

St. Louis County:
Arlington United Methodist Church, The Rev. Mary Harvey
Christ Church UCC, The Rev. Brian Q. Newcomb
Church of the Open Door, The Rev. Susan Forbes
Ethical Society of St Louis, Ms. Kate Lovelady
Evangelical United Church of Christ, The Rev. Katie Hawker
Faith Baptist Church, The Rev. Lamar White
Greater St. Mark Family Church, The Rev. Tommie Pierson/The Rev. W. Audrey Hollis
Northminster Presbyterian Church, The Rev. Carlton Stock
Our Lady of Guadelupe Catholic Church, Fr. Jack Schuler
Congregation Shaare Emeth, Rabbi Andrea Goldstein

St. Charles County
Ethical Society - Mid Rivers, Mr. Bob Greenwell and guest speaker Paul Winslow
Trinity Episcopal Church, The Rev. Tamsen Whistler

Jefferson County
New Hope United Methodist Church, The Rev. Mark Harvey
St John Lateran Catholic Church, Fr. Steve Robeson

Columbia, MO
Rock Bridge Christian Church, The Rev. Maureen Dickmann and guest speaker Russ Unger

Springfield, MO
New Growth Ministries, The Rev. Larry Maddox

Hannibal, MO
Trinity Episcopal, The Rev. Morgan Ibe

Saint Louis Faith Organizations:
Aquinas Institute of Theology
Jews United for Justice
St Louis Metropolitan Clergy Coalition

St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice Launches Statewide “Save our Tips” Hotline to Help Workers Receive Wages Due

On May 24, 2007, Cole County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Joyce rejected the restaurant industry’s attempt to reach into workers’ pockets, saying that the “plain language” of the law “requires employers to pay tipped employees at least $3.25 per hour” and further, that “this obligation has been effective since January 1, 2007.” The court’s ruling dismissed a lawsuit backed by the Missouri restaurant industry seeking to exempt tipped workers from the minimum wage increase that was overwhelmingly passed by Missouri voters in November.

After this victorious court ruling, St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice is ramping up its campaign to help workers affected by the court’s ruling get wages they are due. “The court agreed that tipped workers are covered by the law, and can’t have their raise taken from them, and Jobs with Justice wants to ensure these workers get both raises and back pay,” said Rev. Dr. Martin Rafanan, co-chair of the St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board. 

JwJ has a toll-free hotline and urges tipped workers to call if they have not received a wage increase or if their increase was not retroactive to January 1, 2007.   Affected workers and others interested in the issue can call the “Save our Tips” Hotline toll-free at: 1-877-644-0466, or visit www.STL-JWJ.org/sot .

Special thanks to members of the legal community who stood by tipped workers and assisted in this case.  Attorneys Art Martin and Chris Grant from Schuchat Cook & Werner were joined by Raj Nayak and Paul Sonn from the Brennan Center for Justice, John Amman from St. Louis University School of Law, and Denise Lieberman from the Stetin Center for Law & Social Change in filing a friend of the court brief on JwJ’s behalf.  The case is G.R. Restaurant, Inc. and J.J. Group, Inv., v. Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, No. 07AC-CC00276.

In the last weeks of the legislative session, some Missouri legislators tried to gut the minimum wage increase for Missouri workers.  SB 255 was a bill intended to improve langugage on overtime for first responders.  But Rep. Shannon Cooper (120-R) pushed amendments to the bill that would have removed the annual cost of living adjustment to the minimum wage, and cut pay for tipped employees back to the hourly wage they earned more than 15 years ago.  JwJ members fought back sending thousands of letters and calls to their elected officials in Jefferson City.  When the amendments came to the floor, the Republican majority didn’t have the votes.  You didn’t let politicians in Jefferson City overturn your vote on minimum wage.   

Unfortunately, these games played by Rep. Cooper and others will still cost our communities dearly, as the changes communities need to the laws on overtime for first responders failed along with the “poison pill” amendments.  JwJ supports firefighters, police and all first responders as well as municipal leaders in their call for improved overtime provisions.

On Wednesday, March 14 the Blunt administration reversed its earlier position denying the increase in Missouri’s minimum wage to tipped employees.  More than 62,500 tipped employees in Missouri should see a raise in their next paycheck.Tipped employees should have gotten a raise on January 1, 2007, along with all other Missouri workers when Proposition B to raise Missouri’s minimum wage went into effect.  It has taken months of fight back from servers and the Save Our Tips campaign to get a reversal from the administration.  JwJ members collected signatures on the Save Our Tips petition and signed up servers on Save Our Tips cards to help win the campaign.  

Tipped employees are entitled to back-pay, retroactive to January 1, 2007, the date their raise went into legal effect.   We are also looking into whether servers are entitled to damages for being underpaid for more than 10 weeks. Jobs with Justice and its Workers Rights Board will continue to work with servers that signed on to the Save Our Tips campaign to ensure they actually receive the wages they deserve.  Allies in Give Missourians a Raise and the Save our Tips Campaign include ACORN; AFL-CIO; AFSCME; Brennan Center for Justice; Missouri Citizen Education Fund; Schuchat, Cook and Werner Law Firm; SEIU; UNITE HERE     

Missouri workers are taking a beating from the rising costs of health care.  A recent study of working families in St. Louis, detailed in our new report “Living in the Red” showed that more than half of these families had medical debt from unpaid bills to hospitals, pharmacies, doctors or ambulances.

Health insurance doesn’t even protect working families like it used to.  In “Living in the Red” we learn that more than half of those families struggling to pay medical bills (52%) were insured at the time the medical debt was incurred.

That’s why Jobs with Justice is commited to the “First Things First” campaign, which calls on our Governor and state legislators to enact comprehensive Health Care reform that:

1. Guarantees quality, affordable health coverage for every Missourian whether they are privately insured or covered by a public program.
2. Restores Health Coverage to those who were cut in 2005.
3. Makes HealthCare for Missouri’s families a priority in 2007 over tax breaks for the wealthy.

Sign the “First Things First Petition” Today!

Nearly 700,000 Missourians have no health insurance.  In 2005, Missouri politicians continued to give away millions of dollars in tax breaks for insurance companies and corporations, while eliminating health coverage for 100,000 Missourians and cutting health services for over 300,000 more!

Nobody in Missouri voted for that.  We need to set this right and ensure that health care for children and families becomes a priority this year!

We call on Governor Blunt and the Missouri Legislature to support a common-sense health care plan that:

• Guarantees quality affordable health coverage for every Missourian
• Restores health coverage and services to those who were cut in 2005
• Makes health care for Missouri’s families a priority in 2007

Sign the Petition Now