Two hundred people rallied at the World’s Fair Pavilion in Forest Park on Sunday, April 3rd in support of public workers and vital city services. With the Prop E vote approaching this Tuesday, the event was the final push after months of work educating the public about the importance of passing Proposition E and retaining the Earnings Tax.

Speakers included Mayor Francis Slay, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, St. Louis City Collector of Revenue Gregg Daly, State Senator Robin Wright-Jones, 20th Ward Alderman Craig Schmid, Tumaini Meta from the Organization for Black Struggle, 8th Ward Alderman Stephen Conway, Representative Jamilah Nasheed and others.

Many organizations and unions recruited for the event, and several local news stations were also present. View photos from CBS.

This may have been the rally of the year. On a week’s notice, St. Louis labor leaders and Jobs with Justice brought out 4300 people and packed Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis- to stand up against Right-to-Work-for-Less legislation (SB 1), Minimum Wage Repeal (HB 61 and SB 110) Child Labor Repeal (SB 222), and the other anti-workers legislation at the Missouri Capitol right now.

Carpenters, laborers, pipefitters, boilermakers, teachers, autoworkers, teamsters, janitors, nurses, policemen, glaziers, machinists, electricians, insulators- just about every local in the St. Louis metropolitan area was represented at this rally.

Constant, booming "We-Are-One" chants recurred throughout the event- before, after and during almost every speaker. Speakers voiced their opposition to the attacks on the middle class, tax breaks for the wealthy, tax incentives for corporations and legislators who are overturning the will of the voters.

The recently passed legislation in Wisconsin, which all but severed collective bargaining rights for public employees, and the Right-to-Work-for-Less Hearing in Jefferson City now scheduled for today, Monday, March 14 were surely reasons for such a massive turnout.

Chant leaders JwJ St. Louis Organizer Aaron Burnett And SEIU Local 1 Union Representative Kevin Oliver kicked off the event.

Blessings were given by Pastor Teresea Danieley and Father Richard Creason.

Speakers included: St. Louis Labor Council President Bob Soutier as the MC, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Representative Lew Moye, Parkway National Education Association President Joe Wanda Bozeman, St. Louis Building Trades Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Aboussie, Minimum Wage Activist Joe Wicks and JwJ Communications Organizer Charlie Edelen. Even St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay came down to say a few words.

Check out the video and the "We Are One" chanting, along with more pictures on Show Me Progress blog. There’s a great collection of short interviews and photos of the rally on Occasional Planet’s blog. And a powerful slideshow on FiredUp! Missouri’s blog.

About 100 people braved the cold and came out to the shuttered Wal-Mart in Town & Country (a St. Louis suburb) on Saturday, February 26. Missouri Jobs with Justice, Missouri ProVote, Missouri AFL-CIO and other organizations put on a unity rally- in solidarity with workers in Wiscosin, Indiana and Ohio and their struggle with collective bargaining. Part of our solidarity in their fight, was putting feet on the ground in OUR fights here in Missouri.

After a quick rally with a handful of speakers, including MO JwJ Director Lara Granich, Minimum Wage activist and server Joe Wicks, Missouri House Representative Gina Walsh, former State Senator Joan Bray and 5th District County Councilman Pat Dolan, folks went out to canvass and phone bank to protect our minimum wage. About 20 people canvassed Jefferson County, Franklin County, St. Charles County and West County to put pressure on legislators that had not confirmed a NO vote on HB 61. Read about HB 61 at www.saveourraise.org.

"Its hard, its hard to keep up with daily bills, food, rent, utilities, gas to get to work, it’s hard," said Joe Wicks, "And its sad to know that these people who are supposed to represent the people of Missouri are so dead set against helping the people of Missouri."

The rally, canvass and phone bank was all over local news for the rest of the weekend. Both Fox 2 and KSDK Channel 5 gave us great coverage, interviewing Lara Granich, Joe Wicks, and Vintage Vinyl owner Lew Prince.

House Bill 61 and Senate Bill 110 would repeal the minimum wage that YOU voted for in 2006!

Now is not the time to leave our state’s lowest paid workers behind!

Send an email to your elected representatives to let them know that every penny counts. Save Our Raise!

Go to www.SaveOurRaise.org to learn more and tell your legislators to OPPOSE HB 61 and SB 110!

After a months-long struggle with the Express Scripts, Inc., SEIU workers with assistance from SEIU, Missouri Jobs with Justice, the Saint Louis Area Workers’ Rights Board and other activists have forced ESI to reverse their decision to shutter all Bensalem, PA operations— saving 400 union jobs and providing a substantial severance package to 500 workers facing layoff at another plant in the city. 

“This settlement will keep hundreds of good jobs here in Bensalem, and make sure anyone who gets laid off will be able to provide for their families in this harsh economy,” said Linda Chan, a Pharmacy Tech at the Marshall Lane facility, and a member of the SEIU Healthcare bargaining committee. Express Scripts, Inc has been an extremely profitable company and is the 2nd biggest pharmacy benefits manager in the country.

SEIU members had been engaging in a national campaign to put pressure on ESI to maintain quality jobs in Bensalem when the company announced it would close both the Marshall Lane and Street Road Bensalem facilities following the workers’ overwhelming rejection of the company’s “last, best, final” offer.  In August, 50 ESI workers from Bensalem, Pennsylvania- facing severe pay and benefits cuts- drove to ESI headquarters in St. Louis to meet CEO George Paz face-to-face and protest the cuts, meeting with members of the Saint Louis Workers’ Rights Board while they were here.

In November, three ESI workers were suspended for reaching out to ESI clients about the terrible way ESI was being managed, and SEIU workers contacted St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice’s Workers’ Rights Board again.  The Workers’ Rights Board agreed to hold an Investigative Hearing on ESI’s worker abuse. An invitation was sent to Express Scripts CEO George Paz, and workers from Pennsylvania were set to fly into St. Louis and other ESI workers from Harrisburg, PA and St. Louis were set to testify by phone.  Instead of agreeing to come to the hearing, Paz decided to reopen negotiations- and a settlement was reached in the late hours- the day before the Investigative Hearing was to take place. Paz also agreed to reinstate the three suspended workers.

“This has been a very difficult challenge… by sticking together we saved 400 good jobs for this community and won an excellent severance package for laid off workers that most non-union workers could only dream about,” said Rickie Stemley, a Pharmacy Tech at the Marshall Lane facility.

 Learn more at the SEIU website.
 Read more by the St. Louis Business Journal.

PINNACLE ENTERTAINMENT ELECTED "SCROOGE OF THE YEAR"!!!

Don’t forget- you can still vote for Kansas City’s "Scrooge of the Year" until Monday December 13! Happy Holidays!

Pinnacle Entertainment beat out Rex with a whopping 2544 votes!
Rex Sinquefield was the first loser with a solid 1910 votes!
St. Louis Tea Party Leadership finished in 3rd place with 505 votes!
Senator Roy Blunt elected 4th place with 370 votes!
Peabody Coal finished 5th with 279 votes
Write-in Candidate Riverview Garden’s District Superintendent Clive Coleman finished in 5th place with a respectable 143 votes.

We had an absolutely fantastic time, once again! We had impromptu caroling and auctioning, a very climatic voting announcement, and wonderful hosting by emcees Terri Colburn and Mark Esters! Thank you to all who support Missouri Jobs with Justice, either on-line or in person- special thanks to Teamsters Local 688 for hosting our holiday party! See you next year!

This year’s candidates were:

• Pinnacle Entertainment, owner and operator of Lumiere Casino, nominated by Unite HERE
• Sen Elect Roy Blunt, MO Senator Elect, nominated by CWA 6355
• Rex Sinquefield, nominated by Missouri Budget Project
• Peabody Coal, nominated by Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment
• The St. Louis Tea Party Leadership, nominated by Student Labor Action Project

St. Louis Scrooge of the Year Holiday Happy Hour

Thursday, Dec 9, 2010 5:30-7:30 pm Teamsters Local 688, 4349 Woodson Rd, St. Louis, MO 63134 St. Louis Candidates Admission is $10 and includes 10 votes, appetizers, and non-alcoholic drinks. Cash bar also available. Click HERE to reserve a table to the event CLICK HERE to find out about the Kansas City JwJ Scrooge of the Year Candidates.

More than 500 volunteers spent countless hours educating voters about the dangers of Prop A.  We canvassed, educated and worked the polls.  Although we are all disappointed that Proposition A passed statewide—stripping communities throughout the state of local control over their budget revenues—a whopping 68% of St. Louis City voters voted NO!  It’s a shame that Prop A proponents spent $11.7 million to find out what St. Louis Voters think about the earnings tax—we told them to butt out.
 
JwJ members’ activism, support and volunteer efforts delivered this critical victory in St. Louis, and we will need to redouble our efforts when the earnings tax becomes a ballot issue in April, 2010.

Working people, seniors and neighborhood organizations bonded together to fight for police, fire protection, city services and local control. Your votes opposed higher sales and property taxes that would hit working people hard.  We must keep this momentum!
 
Kudos to the broad coalition of Say No to A endorsers—our allies in the faith community, business community and many community groups worked together to defeat Prop A in St. Louis.

On Friday, October 1, 2010 St. Louis City Comptroller, Darlene Green, addressed the annual St. Louis Workers’ Rights Board Meeting at the Old North Restoration Group office in North St. Louis. Green called on area leaders to oppose Proposition A, calling the measure "ill-conceived" and "disastrous" in a time of city employee furloughs, service reductions and increased service fees. She also listed numerous ways losing the earnings tax, which makes up 1/3 of the cities budget, would negatively affect the City and the region including drastic cuts to public safety.

The St. Louis Area Workers’ Rights Board combats the lack of an adequate legal framework to support worker and economic justice issues.  They harness the  power of prominent individuals to investigate complaints, hold public hearings, issue public statements or undertake other activities which put key issues in the public spotlight  WRB members are prominent citizens, whose names and/or official positions carry moral authority in the St. Louis community.  Current WRB members include clergy, professors, community group leaders and elected officials.

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.

The 2010 Labor in the Pulpits/ on the Bimah/ in the Minbar program focuses on implementation of health care reform to help congregations understand the impact the health care reform will have on working people, seniors and families. In March of 2010, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act.  Still many people are confused and some misinformed about what the new law will actually do for our families and communities  

Find out more about the 2010 Labor in the Pulpits/ on the Bimah/ in the Minbar program and see the list of this year’s participants. 

On Tuesday, August 3rd, Missourians voted and passed Proposition C by a 71% of the vote. This anti-health reform initiative was confusing for a lot of people. It was put on the ballot by politicians and lobbyists to protect insurance companies and to influence elections.  Proposition C posed a very narrow question in a low turnout election.  In addition, the measure has no real effect on our lives or our health insurance status.

We’re focused on moving forward with implementation of the new health reform law that will guarantee that we can get health insurance even if we get sick or lose our jobs.  When fully in place in 2014, health insurance companies will not be able to cap our benefits if we need medical care and  there will be limits on what they can charge us in premiums and deductibles. And this year more than 79,000 Missouri small businesses and non profits are eligible for tax credits to help pay for insurance premiums for workers! 

We’re glad to have the election behind us so we can focus on the real work of educating the community. It’s important for all of us to keep talking about what’s really in the Affordable Care Act.

Looking forward!
We will be celebrating the important reforms that will go into effect next month:

•  Insurance companies will not be allowed to turn children down because they have a pre-existing condition and they must cover the medical care relating to those conditions (this will happen for adults, too in 2014).
•  Insurance companies must allow parents to keep young adults on their insurance policy until the age of 26. The young adult does not have to be a dependent of the parent(s), does not have to live with the parent(s), and may be married.
• Insurance companies will not be allowed to cancel policies when people get sick (rescission) except in cases of fraudulent application.
•  New group health plans cannot charge co-pays and deductibles for preventive care and may not discriminate in favor of higher wage employees.
• The law completely bans lifetime limits and tightly restricts new plans use of annual limits.
• A temporary program to help offset the costs of employers who provide health insurance for retirees between the age of 55-64 begins.

Protect this victory:  If you want to learn more about the immediate effects above, or to get more involved in our health care organizing, please contact health care organizer, Amy Smoucha, amy@mojwj.org or 314-608-3917.