Priorities: When Mayor Slay's Staff Chooses To Fight

Just an observation based on yesterday. When the St. Louis tea party was burning photos of Russ Carnahan outside his office, Mayor Slay's staff said nothing. When they carried a coffin to Russ Carnahan's home the night after healthcare reform passed, the Mayor's staff said nothing. When the tea party falsely accused two SEIU employees of "brutally beating" a guy in a parking lot, the Mayor's staff said nothing. When the local tea party edited video to falsely claim that an UMSL professor was "advocating violence in his classroom," the Mayor's staff said nothing.

But when President of the Board of Aldermen Lewis Reed works on a compromise with the Firefighters regarding their pensions, the Mayor's staff publicly attacks him on Twitter.

Does this make any sense?

St. Louis 99% Head to DC to Take Back the Capitol

Press release:

Workers, students, jobless Missourians and members of Occupy STL will head to Washington, D.C., on Dec. 5 to join with thousands of protesters from around the country to Take Back the Capitol and send a message that Congress needs to represent the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent.

Over the past few months the country has begun to focus on the growing disparity between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, and its impact on our cities and neighborhoods. Thousands of Americans will converge on Washington, D.C., starting on Dec. 5 to participate in four days of protest to make the voices of the 99 percent heard and counter the influence of the 1 percent.

“I'm part of the 99 percent that politicians in Washington have been ignoring, and it is time that Congress listens to us, not just corporate lobbyists from K Street and their campaign contributions." said Jonathan McFarland. "We're going down there to the corridors of power to make our presence felt. We need good jobs and an end to foreclosures now.”

The situation for the 99 percent is dire. Nearly 14 million workers in the United States are without jobs; median incomes for most workers have fallen 6.7 percent in the two years since the recession of 2009; and income inequality is at its worst since the 1920s. And while the middle class and working people are suffering, taxes for the 1 percent are at an all-time low.

1,000 People March For Jobs With Occupy St. Louis and Labor Groups

1,000 people marched today with OccupySTL and various labor groups for the November 17th Day of Action, marking the two month anniversary since Occupy Wall Street began. The protesters in St. Louis, as well as many other cities, marched to a local bridge to remind our legislators that we could put a lot of people to work by fixing our crumbling infrastructure.

The Fox 2 helicopter had some cool footage (make sure you see then end where it pans out on the whole crowd; sorry the resolution is so bad... oh, and the sound is strange too):



Fired Up has more on the declared economic emergency for the 99%.

Congregations Honor Workers With Focus on Tax Justice

Press Release:

Missouri Jobs with Justice hosts “Labor in the Pulpits”
Labor Day services

St. Louis, MO More than 50 congregations in St Louis and across the state will honor workers around Labor Day this year. Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar is an annual nationwide event that celebrates the link between faith, work and justice. Thousands of congregations have focused Labor Day weekend services on the injustices facing workers and the religious communities’ efforts to support those workers’ struggles for living wages and family-sustaining beenfits. The program is coordinated nationally by Interfaith Worker Justice (www.iwj.org) and locally by Missouri Jobs with Justice (www.mojwj.org).

The Rev. Rudy Pulido, a St. Louis Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board Member said, “The relationship of religion and labor is deep-seated in the basic tenets of many faiths. As such it elevates labor issues from the plateau of economics to the heights of humanitarianism and makes it incumbent upon faith leaders, labor leaders and corporations to respect and deal with one another as individuals of incredible worth.”

Because of continued attacks on public services and public employees, and because the Missouri legislature has prioritized corporate interests over the interests of working families, the 2011 Labor in the Pulpit Program will concentrate on the “Morality of Missouri’s Tax Structure.”

Faith leaders across the state are recognizing that the state budget is not investing in the educational and economic opportunties for Missouri’s children. The state is neglecting key components of our infrastructure, like transportation and the safety and health of Missourians. The faith communities participating in the Labor in the Pulpits program this year envision a better future for Missouri. Turning that vision into reality will involve making choices to invest in the public structures that reflect our values and build strong communities.

Tamara Cox, a Missouri social service provider, is quoted in this year’s Labor in the Pulpits’ materials, “I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is and say enough of this talk about cutting services for elderly people, poor people, and children. I want to live in a generous, fair society and I think that there are a lot of people who think the same way.”

Activist Hub Radio 5/1/11

This week Adam and I discuss the "Breitbarting" of a Labor Studies class at the Kansas City and St. Louis branches at the University of Missouri. We play and discuss two videos clips from Professor Judy Ancel and Don Giljam. Please listen to the second and third segments of our show for the interviews with the two UMSL students.



Please listen to the second and third segments of the show here.

Also we are on itunes so please subscribe Activist Hub Radio on Itunes.

Another Attack On Missouri Workers

The Message of the Day from the Missouri AFL-CIO, noting the extreme cynicism of Republicans attacking public workers immediately after many in the St. Louis area worked day and night over the weekend to help get Lambert Airport up and running after a devastating tornado:

On April 26 the Missouri House Committee on Workforce Development and Workplace Safety will hear SB202, a “Paycheck Deception” bill sponsored by Senator Jason Crowell. Crowell is the sponsor of many anti-worker bills this session, including an attempt to gut Missouri’s minimum wage law; to raise taxes on renters; and right to work for less, which seeks to eliminate union rights.

SB202 is called “Paycheck Deception” because the motivation behind the bill isn’t clear at first glance. It means to silence the voices of public workers like nurses, teachers and first responders, including so many that have been working around the clock over the Easter holiday weekend to repair and rebuild after the devastating tornadoes, storms and flooding.

It is wrong to launch attacks on the public workers who serve our communities after tornadoes and other natural disasters hit, and the thousands of other public employees that protect and serve our families and community.

The tornadoes and severe storms over the weekend caused such damage to communities across the state including Lambert Airport in St. Louis. Due to warning systems in place, there were thankfully no fatalities and few serious injuries, although there are so many now in need that have lost homes and suffered other damage.

Missouri union members have been working around the clock to rebuild after the storm, to re-open the airport and to help those injured or in need. That Lambert Airport has already been able get back to work is remarkable and is thanks to the cooperation of local elected officials and the governor, and the dedication of so many public workers that spent a holiday weekend away from their families to protect and serve our families and clean up after such devastation. During and after the storms, public workers risked their own safety to protect our community.

How ironic it is then that tomorrow the Missouri House Committee on Workforce Development and Workplace Safety is hearing SB202. This politically motivated attack seeks to silence the voices of first responders, nurses, teachers and other public workers. It doesn’t create any jobs or help to rebuild after the tornado but instead means to punish the very workers that serve our communities when the need is greatest. Attacks like SB202 and other legislation meant to take away workers’ rights and ability to collectively bargain are wrong for Missouri. After the events of the weekend, the Missouri House needs to take another look at what’s really important to our community and work with dedicated public workers instead of attacking those working for us.

Missouri Workers Get Pink Slips While CEOs Get Raises

Press release from the Missouri AFL-CIO

Searchable Online Database Released by AFL-CIO Highlights CEO Compensation Compared to Average Worker Salaries

www.paywatch.org

Jefferson City, Missouri – April 19, 2011 – While the unemployment rate in Missouri hovers at 9.4 percent, and legislators consider bills attacking the rights and pay of private and public sector workers, numbers released today by Executive PayWatch (www.paywatch.org) show that Missouri-based chief executive officers haven’t had to worry about making ends meet.

D. N. Farr, CEO of Emerson Electric based in St. Louis, received over $24 million in total compensation in 2010 – 613 times more than what the average elementary school teacher in Missouri made in 2009.

And excessive CEO pay isn’t just limited to Missouri. Millions of Americans struggled to get back on their feet after the worst economic downturn in decades, yet CEOs of the nation’s largest companies got an average pay of $11.4 million in 2010 – a 23 percent increase in one year.

“CEOs making millions upon millions have been using their windfalls to fund politically motivated attacks in the Missouri legislature and in ballot initiatives. Working families lose time and again as politicians fail to stop the bleeding of Missouri jobs overseas and then turn around and cut unemployment insurance. The wealthy are getting richer at the expense of middle class – we’re seeing it at the state legislature in guise of bills like SB202, meant to silence workers voices in Jefferson City, and SB 1, right to work for less.” said Hugh McVey.

“CEOs here in Missouri are making millions while the state legislature is introducing bills benefiting millionaires and CEOs at the expense of average working Missourians. Doesn’t Senator Pro Tem Mayer think we should make sure corporate CEOs pay their fair share?” asked Joseph Feldmann, a sheet metal worker in St. Louis.

The release of the searchable online data bank is part of a broad campaign by the AFL-CIO to strengthen Wall Street reform, close corporate tax loopholes and ensure that poor and middle class Americans are no longer required to pay for the greed of corporate CEOs.

Executive PayWatch’s searchable data bank enables users to get information by state, industry and top-paid CEOs and compare the pay of top CEOs with the median pay of nurses, teachers, firefighters and other workers. For the first time, Facebook users will also have access to the information and to participate in the campaign.

The AFL-CIO’s CEO pay estimate is based on 299 companies in the S&P 500 Index whose executive compensation data is available for 2010. The 299 CEOs received a combined total of $3.4 billion in 2010, enough compensation to support 102,325 jobs paying median wages. The median wage for all occupations was $33,190 in 2009, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.