Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C000035 05/06/2015 OPERATING ENGINEERS LOCAL 101 POLITICAL FUND Operating Engineers Political Education Committee 1125 – 17th St., NW Washington DC 20036 3/25/2015 $150,000.00

[emphasis added]

If they did it definitely wouldn’t be the wisest expenditure they could make.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: stocking up (May 4, 2015)

Yesterday evening approximately one thousand people gathered in Theiss Park in Kansas City for a rally and march in support of increasing the hourly minimum wage. The organizers and crowd included a mix of food service and service industry workers, organized labor, university students and adjunct faculty, faith leaders, and Kansas City office holders.

“Justice for janitors.”

The event was organized by Stand Up KC, as part of a national movement:

We are fast food and retail workers from across KC coming together to demand good wages and a voice for low-wage workers.

Today, 48,000 Kansas Citians are employed in some of the world’s largest and most profitable fast food and retail corporations. But they work in our city’s worst paying jobs.

The average fast food worker is now 28 years old and the average retail worker is 38. Both make about $7.35/hour, have no healthcare, no paid sick days or vacation pay, and face daily discrimination. Top brands like McDonald’s make $5.4 billion in profit, pay their CEO $14 million, and have over 500 locations city-wide. It would take the average retail worker 823 years to earn what Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson earns in a year.

But fast food and retail workers won’t accept these facts any longer. Right now fast food and retail workers are sticking together to fight for higher pay so they can afford basic needs, like groceries, housing and transportation.

Stand with us as we stand up for our city and our futures!

Kansas City Mayor Sly James spoke at the rally:

Kansas City Mayor Sly James.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James: ….The one thing that we always must remember is, is that nothing is going to happen unless we act together. If we do not act together we will be picked off one by one, separated, culled from the herd, and nothing will happen.

The only things that have changed the course of history in this country have been when people who believed in something fervently, people who are willing to give up their lives for it, people who are willing to devote their treasure to it, combined with others to do the same thing and stuck together until it happened.

[….]

It is immoral, it is unjust, it is unreasonable, it is unforgivable, it is unexplainable that we all live in the richest, most powerful, best country in the world and people work forty hours a week and cannot feed their families. People work forty hours a week and cannot put food on the table, cannot buy the clothes that they need, cannot take care of their children’s needs, cannot access health care, cannot do things that other people do and take for granted. It is time for us to recognize that and it is time for it to stop.

[….]

“Good jobs and $15 for all.”

“…it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.”

After a relatively brief rally with speeches the crowd marched from the park through the neighborhood and up to the University of Missouri – Kansas City campus.

The start of the march.

“One world, one fight.”

State Auditor Tom Schweich (r), declared candidate for governor in 2016, via Twitter on “right to get paid less” legislation passed by the republican controlled House:

Tom Schweich ‏@TomSchweichMO

Congratulations to the Republican House and Speaker @johndiehljr for passing #RTW. If I was Governor I’d sign it into law. – TS 8:28 AM – 13 Feb 2015

Ah, sucking up to the corporatist wing of the republican party there.

Others noticed, too:

Alexandra ‏@aliemalie

But you’re not, never will be. #MOLeg [….] 9:05 PM – 13 Feb 2015

That left a mark.

Manley Firmness ‏@ManFirmness

MT @TomSchweichMO: Congratulations to the Republican House for passing #RTW. // You’re welcome. Divided workers easier to screw. 9:10 PM – 13 Feb 2015

There is a method…

It arrived at our household in today’s mail:

A Missouri AFL-CIO mailing on behalf of Gary Grigsby (D).

Two years ago there was no significant mail in support of Gary Grigsby (D) in the open seat race in the 51st Legislative District with Dean Dohrman (r).

Those veto override votes in the interim brought that into perspective, don’t you think?

Previously:

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit (October 10, 2014)

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit – part 2 (October 16, 2014)

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit – part 3 (October 18, 2014)

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit (so do his friends) – part 4 (October 24, 2014)

Dean Dohrman (r): the inconvenient truth of those votes for SB 509 (November 1, 2014)

We got a lot of mail today in the 51st Legislative District (November 1, 2014)

Spotted today, on a working person’s vehicle in eastern Jackson County:

“Too Poor to Vote Republican.”

Today Governor Jay Nixon (D) vetoed SB 29, an anti-labor bill passed by the General Assembly:

June 25, 2013 [pdf]

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI

Herewith I return to you Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29 entitled:

AN ACT

To amend chapter 105, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to labor organizations.

I disapprove of Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29. My reasons for disapproval are as follows:

Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29 would prohibit public employers from deducting union dues or fees unless an employee provides – on an annual basis – a written authorization for the deduction of a specific amount on a form prescribed by the bill. The legislation also would require public employees to complete separate written authorization – again on an annual basis – if they want to allow the dues they pay to be used for political purposes. The bill targets a single group of employees and imposes on them unnecessary and cumbersome process.

There are a number of items that employees may elect to have withheld from their paychecks, including money for college savings accounts, deferred compensation, and 401(K) plans. And, under current law, state employees may elect to have their union dues withheld. section 33.103 RSMo. In each of these instances, the withholdings are based on on one-time authorizations that the employee clearly has the authority to revoke at any time. Employees are not required to take additional steps to cause such withholdings to continue in subsequent years. But under this bill, public employees who are members of unions would be required to complete two separate written authorizations each year. Singling out union dues for these extra processes serves no beneficial purpose. rather, the bill places unnecessary burdens on public employees for the purpose of weakening labor organizations. I therefore disapprove of Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29.

Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29 also exempts first responders from its requirements regarding authorization for deduction and use of union dues. It has been held that such an exemption provides disparate treatment to similarly situated people without a compelling government interest, in violation of the Equal protection Clause of the United States Constitution. (See Bailey v. Callaghan, 873 F.Supp.2d 879, 885-8869E.D. Mich.. 2012)).

In accordance with the above stated reasons for disapproval, I am returning Senate Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 29 without my approval.

Respectfully submitted,

s/

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon

Governor

Previously:

KC-Area Faith Leaders on SB29, Paycheck Deception (May 15, 2013)

In the Missouri Constitution, Bill of Rights:

Missouri Constitution

Article I

BILL OF RIGHTS

Section 29

Organized labor and collective bargaining.

Section 29. That employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.

   [….][footnotes]

   (2007) Section applies to public employees as well as private sector employees. Independence-National Education Association v. Independence School District, 223 S.W.3d 131 (Mo.banc).

[emphasis added]

I wonder what brought this on?:

HB 677

Specifies that any member of the General Assembly who proposes legislation that further restricts an individual’s right to bargain collectively will be guilty of a class D felony

Sponsor: Roorda, Jeff (113)

Co-Sponsor: Burns, Bob (093) … et al.

Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2013

LR Number: 1783L.01I

Last Action: 2/20/2013 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

[….]

Heh.

HB 633: we really never do get out of junior high school (February 18, 2013)

Ah, for republicans guns trump everything else. Well, that and abortion and gays. And whatever else Obama and/or Democrats are for.

We must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights. Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

Previously: Black Friday labor demonstration in Roeland Park, Kansas (November 23, 2012)

A press release from Walmart:

The following statement can be attributed to David Tovar, Vice President, Corporate Communications.

Nov. 23, 2012 – The number of protests being reported by the UFCW are grossly exaggerated. We are aware of a few dozen protests at our stores today. The number of associates that have missed their scheduled shift today is more than 60 percent less than Black Friday last year.

It was proven last night – and again today – that the OUR Walmart group doesn’t speak for the 1.3 million Walmart associates. We had our best Black Friday ever and OUR Walmart was unable  to recruit more than a small number of associates to participate in these made for TV events. Press reports are now exposing what we have said all along – the large majority of protesters aren’t even Walmart workers.

“…the large majority of protesters aren’t even Walmart workers…”

And why would that be? Are they happy campers? Are there consequences for speaking out, either way? Just asking.

No matter how much the corporation tries to spin it, this is the new meme.

A demonstrator in Roeland Park, Kansas on “Black Friday”, November 23, 2012.

From yesterday’s broadcast report on KSHB on the labor demonstration in Roeland Park, Kansas:

Lisa Benson, KSHB: [quoting a Walmart press release] “…Press reports are now exposing what we have said all along, the large majority of protesters aren’t even Walmart workers.”

A significant fact that doesn’t appear to bother these protesters who are standing for the rights of workers as they work. Now demonstrators say employees need to unionize, but again, there were no Walmart employees at that demonstration, so we were not able to ask them what they want.

“…there were no Walmart employees at that demonstration, so we were not able to ask them what they want…”

Uh, is a demonstration the only place you can seek out employees if you want to ask them questions? Just asking.

That wasn’t the point. This is:

November 24, 2012 9:07 AM

The Black Friday worker actions at Wal-Mart: why they mattered

By Kathleen Geier

….a strategy of gradual escalation that will be the “new permanent reality” for Wal-Mart: keeping the pressure on, and throwing a harsh national spotlight on the retailer’s bottom-feeding, exploitative labor practices.

Why do these actions matter? First of all, there’s the brute fact of Wal-Mart’s enormous size and power. Wal-Mart is the third largest public corporation in the world, and also the world’s largest private employer, and largest retailer. And as historians like Bethany Moreton have pointed out, when it comes to its employees, Wal-Mart, with its roots in the culture of the agrarian South, has always taken an anti-modern, deeply feudalistic and patriarchal approach. Its economic model is based on low-wage labor, and it has been notable as one of the most vehemently anti-union employers in American history. Since Wal-Mart is such a behemoth, and since its ideology is so passionately anti-labor, it has been one of the driving forces in our economy that has been disempowering and immiserating American workers and accelerating economic inequality. Here, for example, are a few shocking stats, from internal Wal-Mart documents that were recently released: low-level workers at Wal-Mart generally start at only $8 per hour, and, even if their evaluations are flawless, are eligible for a yearly raise that is, at maximum, 60 cents per hour. Most workers get only 20 to 40 cents, and the average worker, after working there for six years, would only be making $10.60 an hour….

To put it in the words of an organizer of yesterday’s demonstration in Roeland Park, Kansas:

….Walmart set the standard to open on Thanksgiving night. Sears, Kmart, everybody else followed suit. When Walmart does it everybody else does it. So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why….

When people start paying attention you’ve already lost, no matter how furiously you continue to spin.

“…So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why…”

A Black Friday labor demonstration at the parking lot entrance of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Starting at noon today approximately one hundred people, a mix of union members, young people, and older activists, demonstrated in front of the Walmart store in Roeland Park, Kansas, protesting the Thanksgiving evening opening and other worker issues. The union members, identifiable by the logos on their clothing, included Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, United Auto Workers, and Carpenters/Joiners.

Mike Frommer, one of the organizers, spoke with the media:

Mike Frommer: …Living wage, full time employment, uh, and most of all, protection from retaliation, to be able to say these things without somebody saying, hey, you know, you’re gonna lose your job if you’re talking like that.

[….]

Question: There was a group at Independence [Missouri], at the Walmart. Is there another group, or do you know?

Mike Frommer: Uh, this is, you know, this is a, uh, it’s an online thing.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: Any individual group can go online, pick out a demonstration that they want to attend, and, and just kind of do their own thing.

Question: It’s not a real organized, just for like [crosstalk][inaudible] here, if you want to show up.

Mike Frommer: It’s, yeah, you can do, you can do it anywhere, you know, any group, we’ve had people that have gone out strike in, in places like Oklahoma City where the workers just walked out. They contacted no one. They just did it by using the web site.

Question: Have any Walmart workers walked out today [crosstalk] that are in this group?

Mike Frommer: At this store? Not at this store.

Question: Okay.

Mike Frommer: But we just chose this store, just for, for solidarity.

[….]

Question: And is it just about Walmart, or is it other retailers that?

Mike Frommer: Well, I, I think Walmart sets the standard. Walmart set the standard to open on Thanksgiving night. Sears, Kmart, everybody else followed suit. When Walmart does it everybody else does it. So next Thanksgiving, when you’re sitting at the, at the dinner table and some of your family’s not there because they’re at work this is why.

[….]

The demonstration press release:

For release Nov. 23, 2012        

Contacts: Judy Ancel, KC Jobs with Justice [….]

Mike Frommer, UFCW [….]

Santino Scalici, autoworker and UAW member [….]

Local Citizens Join Nationwide Black Friday Protest Against Walmart

A group of local citizens and working people will gather outside the Walmart Store at 5150 Roe Blvd, Roeland Park, KS at noon on Black Friday, Nov. 23rd. They come together to stand with retail and warehouse workers who will be striking and demanding respect and their rights from Walmart on this the busiest shopping day of the year.

Starting last summer, workers all along Walmart’s production chain began the first-ever strikes against the company. Many have joined OUR WALMART, a mutual aid organization of Walmart workers. A number as a result are now facing retaliation by Walmart.

Friday’s rally is organized by Kansas City area working people, including a number of union members, and Kansas City Jobs with Justice, who are concerned about the effects of Walmart’s low wages and poor treatment of its associates on all workers and our communities. They object to retaliation against workers who are protesting bad conditions and harassment on the job. They are dismayed by Walmart’s discrimination against women workers and people of color, wages that average $8.81 an hour, unaffordable benefits, and shifting of costs onto taxpayers. The Missouri Department of Social Services reported last year that 10,028 Walmart employees and their families enrolled in Missouri’s Medicaid program- MO HealthNet, and its well-known that many Walmart Associates qualify for food stamps.

Walmart’s leadership in driving down standards can be seen in the progressive erosion of their workers’ Thanksgiving holiday in the last few years, which has now spread to their competitors. Black Friday has become Black Thursday eliminating one of the few times all year when families have a common holiday and can get together.

Santino Scalici, an autoworker and one of the organizers of Friday’s rally said, “We want Walmart workers to know that when Walmart retaliates against workers who stand up for their rights and dignity, we will be there to support them.  It’s time we support Walmart workers in their legal right to a democratic voice in the decisions that affect their lives.”

For more information about Walmart worker organizing and the company, visit http://www.makingchangeatwalmart.org and http://www.forrespect.org.

—end—

[emphasis in original]

Pickets along Roe Boulevard in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Three Kansas City area television stations had crews covering the demonstration. There was at least one (apparent) print reporter interviewing people at the demonstration.

From what we heard in the crowd individuals entered a store in Independence, Missouri earlier in the day and passed out leaflets. They were told to leave.