June 17 Rally for the Employee Free Choice Act
Posted June 19, 2009
On Wednesday, June 17 - We told Elected officials To support the Employee Free Choice Act and help re-build our economy.
Kansas City Jobs with Justice and the Kansas City AFL-CIO, along with countless unions, community groups, activists and elected officials rallied on June 17 in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
Almost 150 Jobs with Justice Activists and allies gathered in the parking lot of Home Depot to remind elected officials how critical the Employee Free Choice Act is to protecting the rights of workers and rebuilding our economy.
Hear a news report on the rally from Heartland Labor Forum on KKFI
ClickHere and Here for articles on the Rally
Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act
You Did It!! Missouri JwJ members Saved Our Tips
Posted May 29, 2009
The waiters and waitresses in Missouri will NOT have to deal with a paycut during this economic crisis. Despite the best efforts of some Missouri legislators, the waiters and waitresses in Missouri united with their allies through Jobs with Justice and defeated Rep. Tim Jones' (R-Eureka) bill to weaken the minimum wage for tipped employees.
In 2006, 76.4% of Missouri voters passed Proposition B which increased the wage for tipped employees. The ballot initiative passed in every single Missouri county by 16 points or more. Since then, business interests and their allies in the legislators have tried to chip away at the minimum wage continually.
During the last 4 months of the legislative session you sent thousands of emails, made calls, and lobbied your legislators and they heard you loud and clear. Thanks to tremendous pressure the bill died in the Senate as the legislative session came to a close on May 15.
THEY'LL BE BACK AND WE'LL BE READY!
The restaurant industry and its lobbyists were clear that they are not done trying to pick the pockets of their waiters and waitresses. We expect to see another bill to undermine the tipped employee minimum wage next session so JwJ and its leaders will continue to strengthen our network of waiters, waitresses and supporters of working people throughout the state to protect FAIR WAGES FOR SERVERS.
Go HERE to learn more about leaders that gave key support to this campaign.Save Our Tips Pub-Crawl
Posted April 23, 2009
On Wednesday April 22, 2009 - We went to where HB258 Hurts the Most!
A six member team of JwJ leaders and activists held a JwJ Organizing Committee Save Our Tips Pub-Crawl last Tuesday. The team visited 6 locations including 3 establishments with management that supports the bill. Members worked to educate servers and allies on HB258, the bill that would freeze minimum wage for servers at $3.52, as well as sign them up to Take Action.
Register Today for 2009 Building JwJ Leadership Program
Posted January 26, 2009 at 3:00 pm
2007 Building JwJ Leadership Program Participants during an excercise in "power analysis" from left, Nancy Cross, SEIU; Manny Abarca, MIRA; Matt Heiman and Tony Harris from APWU.
There will be three sessions this year.
Spring session will be Friday, March 13 at 10 am through Sunday, March 15 at 1 pm in St. Louis.
The summer session will be June 12-14, in Kansas City, and the fall session will be October 23-25 in Jefferson City.
Missouri's Building Jobs with Justice Leadership Development Program provides leaders insight into organizing's key concepts and skills. Community organizing principles, as first articulated and carried out by Saul Alinsky in Chicago, encouraged leaders to act together to create powerful organizations and win on issues they care about. Registration deadline for the spring session is February 13, 2009. Registration forms can be found in the brochure, here.Participants move through a series of sessions including such topics as: building relationships, understanding power, the meaning and understanding of self interest, issues and actions, and creating winnable campaigns. This training builds a stronger, more powerful movement for Jobs with Justice in Missouri.
Full Tuition is $500 per participant, which includes lodging, refreshments and materials. The discount for JwJ Member Organizations and Sustaining Individual Members (who give to JwJ monthly on their credit or debit card, sign up to be a Sustainer) and their members is $250. Those who cannot afford tuition out-of-pocket can work with JwJ staff to fundraise their tution. Details on the "fundraising option" are in the program's brochure. All questions should be directed to Jennifer Rafanan, 314-644-0466, ext 15.
Jan 7th Launch for Jobs and Economic Recovery Now
Posted January 26, 2008 at 2:30pm
On Wednesday, January 7th – Congress went back into session, and we took to the streets!
Missouri Jobs with Justice, along with Missouri ProVote, ACORN and countless unions, community groups, activists and elected officials rallied on Jan. 7th and called on Congress to quickly pass an Economic Recovery Package that will put people to work and lay the foundation for sustainable growth.
JwJ activists and allies sent a clear message to our elected officials in Congress.Stay tuned for more actions in the coming weeks as we fight to ensure that Congress puts the priorities of working families first as they address the economic crisis.
See press coverage of the event here
Find out more about this campaign This campaign launched with St. Louis JwJ on January 6Kansas City to become the first city in Kansas to raise State minimum wage!
Posted July 24, 2008 at 7:00pm
On July 24, Greater Kansas City Jobs with Justice, teamed with the Kansas Action Network, won its first local victory when the Unified Government of Wyandotte County unanimously passed an ordinance raising the minimum wage for workers in Kansas City, KS who are excluded from federal minimum wage law. Current State law allows these excluded workers to be paid an absurdly low rate of $2.65/hr but with the passage of this ordinance, an estimated 2,300 workers in KCK will now get a raise to the federal level of $6.55/hr. The ordinance also mandates that the minimum wage remain matched to federal level in to the future.
A coalition of labor, faith and community groups including United Autoworkers Local 31, Tri-County Labor Council (AFL-CIO), Interfaith Worker Justice, and the Business and Professional Women of Kansas, worked with Jobs with Justice and KAN for 6 months lobbying commissioners, collecting petition signatures from KCK residents, and developing ordinance language. Greater Kansas City Jobs with Justice thanks our partners for all their great work in this campaign and will continue working with KAN to see that a statewide law is passed raising the wage for all of Kansas' lowest paid workers.
Raise the Wage Kansas is a campaign of the Kansas Action Network to raise the State's minimum wage. The Kansas wage, which has not changed since 1988, is the lowest of all states that have a minimum wage. Because anti-worker forces in the legislature have killed multiple attempts to raise the wage, and because Kansas has no ballot initiative process, KAN is working to pass ordinances in the State's three largest cities - Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City - in an effort to increase pressure on the State legislature. A 2006 study estimated that at least 17,000 workers in Kansas were making less than the then federal minimum wage of $5.15/hr.
For more information on the campaign, see Raise the Wage Kansas (http://raisethewagekansas.org)
You Did It! Missouri JwJ Leaders Save Affirmative Action
Posted May 5, 2008 at 8:27 am
Missouri Jobs with Justice, working as part of the broader WE CAN coalition, won a tremendous victory when the so-called Missouri Civil Rights Initiative failed to turn in signatures which would have placed a constitutional ban on affirmative action on the November ballot.
Missouri Jobs with Justice coordinated a three-month, volunteer crew of voter educators including Cathy Goldstein and Palmer Alexander pictured here. These voter educators combed the streets of their communities day in and day out to find petitioners. Once they found petitioners, educators stood alongside them and made sure voters knew exactly what the deceptively-named "Missouri Civil Rights Initiative" would do to Missouri.
Volunteers logged well over a thousand hours next to petitioners, who usually gave up signature gathering on a site when they encountered an educator.
Jobs with Justice worked in coalition with Missouri ACORN whose voter educators also worked throughout the state to complement the volunteer crews. Other WE CAN Coalition partners spearheaded community education efforts such as public forums, a speakers bureau and press conferences throughout the campaign.
Read more from the JwJ Solidarity Calendar.
Visit the St.
Louis Jobs with Justice site.
Visit the Missouri
Jobs with Justice site.
