Grinch of the Year is a fundraiser for St. Louis Area Jobs with Justice—one dollar, one vote.

2008 Grinch of the Year Nominees

Henry M. Paulson, Jr. the 74th Secretary of the United States Treasury
Nominated by Greater St. Louis UAW City CAP Council

In 2006 President George W. Bush appointed Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury, pulling Paulson away from Goldman Sachs. Paulson’s term has been spent contributing to the failure of an unregulated banking and investment industry that recently sent the US economy into an uncontrolled downward spiral. While workers lose their jobs, families lose the homes, and retirees lose their savings, Paulson is giving the $780 BILLION dollar economic bailout to Wall Street instead of Main Street. Paulson’s holiday spending spree gives money to banks and investment institutions while he continually waffles about which part of corporate American should be propped up most. Recently, Paulson refused to assist automakers with bailout funds which could preserve tens of thousands of union manufacturing jobs in the country. Paulson lines the pockets of bankers while bankrupting workers. Make him Grinch of the Year for his unpatriotic and bad priorities.

Votes for Paulson

10 votes $10.00 20 votes $20.00 50 votes $50.00 100 votes $100.00

Mary Junck, CEO Lee Enterprises (publisher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Nominated by St. Louis Newspaper Guild – CWA 36047

In a sneak attack reminiscent of Pearl Harbor, Lee Enterprises just mailed Post-Dispatch retirees a nasty holiday greeting informing them their retiree medical coverage was slashed effective at the end of the year. This action was taken in spite of strong contractual language that guarantees this right to all Guild retirees for their lifetime. Now retirees, who live on a fixed income in a spiraling economy, will be required to pay health insurance premiums they can ill-afford, while their union fights this latest outrage.

Also in 2008, Lee Enterprises outsourced Post-Dispatch jobs to India and laid off union employees out of seniority order; maintaining that those they passed over were more valuable. Make Mary Junck Grinch of the Year for stealing retiree benefits and union jobs right from our living room.

Votes for Junck

10 votes $10.00 20 votes $20.00 50 votes $50.00 100 votes $100.00

Western Union
Nominated by CWA District 6

In March Western Union, a cornerstone of corporate America, decided to jump on the union-busting bandwagon. In a blatant attempt to operate a union-free workplace, Western Union announced that it would lay off 640 workers represented by CWA Local 6377. Western Union was built into an international financial powerhouse by its organized workers for decades. Local 6377 President Earline Jones called the company "an American icon" that has "turned its back on the employees who built it into a multinational enterprise." Union attempts to block the unfair labor practices of retaliatory layoffs were thwarted by George Bush’s National Labor Relations Board. Send Western Union a clear message by making them our Grinch of the Year! "Union Busting is Immoral—STOP!"

Votes for Western Union

10 votes $10.00 20 votes $20.00 50 votes $50.00 100 votes $100.00

ABM Lakeside
Nominated by SEIU Local 1

ABM Lakeside provides Janitorial services at Metropolitan Square, the largest office building in the state of Missouri. ABM Lakeside has been union free at this facility for years, despite the fact that all other ABM employees enjoy the rights and benefits provided by a union contract.  They single out this facility for unequal treatment, and the longer it goes on the more the workers in the building suffer.  We have heard horror stories from workers of abuse by supervisors, discrimination toward the workforce, and intimidation, even termination, of those who try to take up these issues with management.  Come to the Grinch Party, and hear workers tell a tale of woe about the "Sticky Bathroom" that they are sent to when marked by management.  The bathroom where one enters to perform an impossible job, and then leaves without a job at all.  Help heap shame on ABM Lakeside for this behavior.  Enough is enough!

Votes for ABM Lakeside

10 votes $10.00 20 votes $20.00 50 votes $50.00 100 votes $100.00

Senator Kit Bond
Nominated by the St. Louis Workers Rights Board

Neglecting the needs of struggling workers and of seniors who can’t afford their medicine, Sen. Bond continually votes against the bread and butter interests of his constituents. For refusing to support the Employee Free Choice Act and for voting against bills that would require negotiated negotiated Rx prices or bulk purchases for Medicare part D on expanding enrollment period for Medicare Part D, make Senator Bond the 2008 Grinch of the Year!

As St Louis Jobs with Justice members and leaders know, we’ve become part of a powerful statewide Missouri Jobs with Justice organization, joining with an energized new Kansas City Jobs with Justice coalition and grassroots community, faith and labor leaders from throughout the state.

This new statewide organization will be hiring three new organizers to ensure we enter 2009 more powerful, and ready to work for justice for Missouri’s workers with our newly-elected and re-elected political leaders.  Click on any of the positions below to download a fuller description and directions on how to apply:

• Kansas City Organizer
• “Public Good” Project Organizer
• Data and Communications Organizer

Missouri JwJ is accepting candidates now through November 14, 2008. 

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 2008 Labor in the Pulpits/ on the Bimah/ in the Minbar program concentrated on how the realities of the health care system are impacting thousands of working families in Missouri and on a growing movement of faith and community leaders seeking meaningful healthcare reform called Missouri Healthcare for All.  No Missouri worker should lack access to health care, and this year’s program will focus on opportunities to guarantee quality, affordable health care for everyone in Missouri.  Jobs with Justice supports the faith and community leaders who founded the Missouri Health Care for All movement, and we encourage all Missourians to join 65 faith, community and labor groups and thousands of individuals by  endorsing the principles .  Each endorsement makes this movement stronger.

To view a list of the 2008 participating congregations, CLICK HERE

For more information on Labor in the Pulpits, or to involve your congregation in 2009, contact Katrina Molnar at katrina@stl-jwj.org, 314.644.0466 x13.

Labor in the Pulpits / on the Bimah / in the Minbar is coordinated nationally by Interfaith Worker Justice, www.iwj.org.

Hundreds of A-B/InBev workers from our community, Brazil, Belgium and Canada and their community supporters rallied Saturday, in Kiener Plaza in Downtown St. Louis.

St Louis has cherished the tradition of Anheuser-Busch as a quality employer and important member of our economic community. InBev has been quick to provide assurances about its ongoing commitment to St Louis and at this rally the community let InBev know we’re watching, that we do hope we’re beginning a new tradition with InBev.

We won’t have to wait long to see if InBev will really "walk the walk". Monday, August 18, 2008 A-B/InBev begins talks with 8,000 workers through their union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Their agreements on job security, pensions and health care coverage for workers, retirees and their families will send a signal to St Louis and 12 other communities throughout the country where InBev will take ownerhip of A-B breweries. For more information on the Rally See coverage from KSDK Channel 5 .

Fall session will be Friday, September 12 at 10 am through Sunday, September 14 at 1 pm at the Rickmann Center just outside 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.

Read more about the Building JwJ Leadership Program

Register Online

Download a Program Brochure

View a List of Area Graduates

Pictured right:  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, APWU.

Registration deadline is August 15, 2008.

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.

Health Care for 54,000 Uninsured Missouri Workers.
Status: not dead yet, but stuck in "Emergency" room.

Last week, Missouri lawmakers forfeited an opportunity to insure 54,000 uninsured minimum wage and low income workers through a Medicaid expansion that is phase 1 of "Insure Missouri." Despite federal approval and federal money available for the program, Rep. Rob Schaaf and his Special Committee on Healthcare Transformation held up the emergency rule, saying that insuring 54,000 uninsured Missourians was not "an emergency or compelling state interest."

But Phase One of Insure Missouri is not dead yet! The 54,000 working parents eligible for this insurance may be covered in July of this year at the earliest—but only if legislators on both sides of the aisle support the program and make sure it is funded for FY09.

Some legislators want to cut this Medicaid program even before families are enrolled, and we can’t let them! Despite the fact that money is available to expand coverage to 54,000 uninsured Missourians this year, some legislators in both parties continue to attack this program. Some oppose providing Medicaid to more people; others feel the program doesn’t go far enough or help enough people. They need to hear from you!

In addition to helping the 54,000 parents to get coverage under phase 1, this years Social Services budget must include money to restore coverage for seniors and people with disabilities to the income limits they had before Gov. Blunt’s 2005 Medicaid cuts.

Click to write members of the House Budget Committee and the Special Committee on Healthcare Transformation. Also make sure you contact your Representative and Senator.

Tell them you insist they take this immediate opportunity to provide healthcare to 54,000 uninsured Missouri workers and every opportunity to expand coverage this year. Look up your legislators here.

KANSAS CITY
Monday, February 11, 2008
at 7 pm at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main, 64112.
See the growing list of KC participants

ST LOUIS
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
at 6:30 pm at Harris Stowe State University Auditorium, 3026 Laclede Ave, 63103.
See the growing list of St Louis participants

Organized By Missouri Jobs with Justice and the St Louis Workers’ Rights Board with allies in the WE CAN Coalition, ACLU of Eastern Missouri and Western Missouri/Kansas, FOCUS St. Louis, Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, Metropolitan Congregations United – St. Louis, Missouri Association for Social Welfare, National Conference for Community and Justice of Metropolitan St. Louis, Metropolitan Organization for Racial and Economic Equality, Service Employees International Union

Yes, I will attend a public hearing

 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