Missouri Workers Center

12 Jan

🥁 NEW: Today, we’re releasing our 2025 annual report to highlight our biggest wins and our workers’ stories! Check it out at the link in our bio, or here: bit.ly/mwc2025annualreport

A bigger jail won’t make St. Louis safer.

We’re not stuck choosing between “keep it broken” and “build it bigger.” The people who can choose differently are named in these slides.

Swipe to see who they are. Then send this to someone who still thinks more cells means more safety.

A bigger jail won’t make St. Louis safer.

Saying no to a new jail doesn’t mean ignoring harm. It means survivors lead the response, and we deal with why harm happened instead of locking people away and calling it fixed.

And the people inside the CJC right now deserve clean water, real medical care, and an end to 23-hour lockdowns. That’s not endorsing jail. That’s basic decency.

A bigger jail won’t make St. Louis safer.

More than 20 organizations across our region are saying the same thing: invest in our communities, not cages.

Every dollar spent growing the City Justice Center is a dollar that doesn’t go to housing, mental health care, or the things that actually keep our neighbors safe.

Last week, our board member Rabbi Doug Alpert was in the West Bank picking olives with Palestinian families. Some of these groves have been in the same families for hundreds of years.

Every one of us has some kind of cover we can lend. Seniority. A citizenship nobody can question. The nerve to say “that’s not okay” when a coworker can’t. The question is whether you use it.

There’s a word for people like Doug: mensch. Thank you for showing us how to be leaders.

Last week, our board member Rabbi Doug Alpert was in the West Bank picking olives with Palestinian families. Some of these groves have been in the same families for hundreds of years.

The next morning, he went back to the groves to help with the harvest.

The families told the group they would have been too afraid to harvest without them there. Doug had protection they didn’t, and he used it for them.

Last week, our board member Rabbi Doug Alpert was in the West Bank picking olives with Palestinian families. Some of these groves have been in the same families for hundreds of years.

On day three, Israeli police and soldiers detained him and his group. They were fingerprinted, photographed for mugshots and threatened with deportation.

40 hours at Missouri's $15 minimum = $600 before taxes. A St. Louis two-bedroom runs about $1,215 a month. And since 2025, the minimum no longer rises with prices. Food service workers are demanding $25 an hour. Sign the Bill of Rights — buff.ly/qNE477T

This year in Missouri: Alamo workers in St. Louis voted 47–28 to unionize. KC Streetcar workers voted 41–11. Kaldi's on Skinker became the first Kaldi's in the country to vote for a union. This is our moment. Sign the Bill of Rights —https://buff.ly/4v9yIEZ

Need plans tonight in Kansas City? Join us! They'll talk about economic and racial inequality and getting out the vote to make democracy work for all of us. 🗳️ 📍 Country Club Christian Church, 6101 Ward Pkwy 🕕 6 PM

Missouri is at-will: most of us can be fired for any reason or none, with no warning. In food service, that can mean your name just vanishes from the schedule. We're demanding just cause: a real reason and fair warning. Sign the Bill of Rights: buff.ly/qNE477T

Wall Street made a $7 trillion bet on AI data centers. Now lenders are checking the math: Gartner says the money forecast covers about 42 cents of every dollar needed. Investors can sell and walk. Your town can't move. Ask your county commission: if this company folds, who pays?

Alamo Drafthouse workers in St. Louis say QR-code ordering cut their tips and hours, so they organized. Tip pools, tip-outs and house cuts shouldn't be a mystery. It's our money. Show us the math. Sign the Bill of Rights — buff.ly/4v9yIEZ

If we’d listened to Leonard Zeskind sooner, we might not be in this mess. Join us at Left Bank Books to celebrate the re-release and hear what it still has to teach us about the fight ahead. Sign up Here: buff.ly/C6ECE7l

Leonard Zeskind called out the Tea Party for what it was and traced the road to MAGA, all while others were declaring America “post-racial.” Join us tomorrow night: 📍 Left Bank Books, St. Louis 399 N. Euclid Ave. STL, MO 63108 🗓 Wednesday 10/21 at 6p

Leonard Zeskind saw it coming. In 2009, while everyone was talking about a “post-racial America,” he wrote Blood and Politics to show how white nationalism was moving from the margins into the mainstream. He was a dear friend to many of us here.

kclibrary.orgBlood and Politics: The History of White NationalismThose who were close to human rights activist and author Leonard Zeskind’s work discuss his legacy and how he chronicled the history of white nationalism.

This year the Naval Academy pulled his book from its library. We’re celebrating its re-release instead. 📍 Plaza Library, Kansas City 🗓 Monday 10/19: reception 5:30, program 6:00 Free. RSVP: kclibrary.org/events/blood...

Big Tech is betting we’re too divided to stop them. But 68% of Missourians say no to a data center in their community, including 79% of Democrats and 56% of Republicans. You and your neighbor might not agree on much. Send this to them anyway. (SLU/YouGov, 2026)

Missouri Workers Center reposted

LaRoeBoat

@johnlaroe.bsky.social

13 October 2026 Pioneer Park, Westport #KansasCity, #Missouri 90 F. & Partly Cloudy Just shy of 100 members and supporters of the #MissouriWorkersCenter rallied for Workplace Democracy and a Food Service Workers Bill of Rights.

WE. WON. 🎉 51 - 6 that’s how Loafers workers voted to UNIONIZE! Bakers, bagel makers, sandwich makers, and cashiers looked at each other and said: we deserve a say. Then they used their STRENGTH IN NUMBERS to make it happen. 💪

To every worker at Loafers, we are SO proud of you. Thank you for showing workers all over Missouri what’s possible when we stick together. When we fight, we WIN! 🥖

buff.lyFood Service Workers Bill of RightsPlease enable JavaScript in your browser

The service industry is unionizing statewide! Sign the Food Service Workers Bill of Rights and join the movement: buff.ly/a2jyy51

This is what our movement looks like. Food service workers across Missouri Black, white, and Brown came together behind the Food Service Workers’ Bill of Rights. Now Loafers workers have taken it onto the shop floor and won their vote. One fight built the next. That’s PROGRESS.

Yesterday, STL & KC showed up for the Food Service Workers’ Bill of Rights. Cooks, servers, baristas, and cashiers, many of them parents & caregivers, filled the streets in both cities. 🎥 Watch the videos from both rallies, Addie Unekis, Bagel Union Worker & Leader w/ MWC

1/2 The Kansas City Star cut the reporter who covered the police. So who's watching KCPD now? KC pays for its police, but a board of the governor's picks runs them. Not the city council. Not us. Since 2022, the state constitution forces KC to spend at least 25% of its general budget on police.

2/2 Research shows that when local reporters disappear, government spending goes up and corruption cases climb. If the paper won't watch, we will. Police board meetings are open to the public. Bring a coworker. Source: KCUR, Sept. 29, 2026

Every time the electric bill goes up, something else has to wait. The groceries. The daycare invoice. The car payment. But why is it going up? Ameren wants to keep building for data centers, and we’re the ones who pay for it.

So THIS Saturday the 10th, Sierra Club is leading us on a march to Ameren’s front door. We’re bringing our kids, our signs, some puppets, and even a piñata of the Labadie coal plant. We’ll say it loud enough that they can’t pretend they didn’t hear. The many will defeat the money.

buff.lyKlondike Park, St. Charles Co. – Beyond Coal Educational OutingWe will hike a little under 3 miles, including a quarter mile on a paved path with the remainder on the Hogsback Trail, a dirt trail. There will be a gradual switchback incline to the ridge, which…

People’s Parade & Hearing, Sat Oct 10, 11am, starting at Lafayette Park. Can you make it? RSVP here buff.ly/2Y705kG

Want $25/hr, paid sick days, and a schedule you can plan around? Come to the rally. 📣 Tues, Oct 13 📍 St. Louis, 1 PM: Chouteau Park 📍 Kansas City, 5 PM: Pioneer Park Bring your coworkers. RSVP HERE: buff.ly/gaqu14X

1/3 Glendy and Nixon were our neighbors in Overland. Glendy organized with Fuerza. She was one of ours. ICE picked Nixon up in April 2025 and he was deported to Guatemala. Glendy, afraid of being deported without her three daughters, left to join him. Sign the Petition: buff.ly/Qx1pKTg

2/3 A month later, both were found killed. Their baby, a U.S. citizen born in St. Louis, was found crying beside them. Last Sunday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis called for an end to mass deportation. Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 27, 2026

buff.lyStand with our Immigrant NeighborsPlease enable JavaScript in your browser

3/3 And it's still happening here: Hillsdale police, working under an agreement with ICE, showed up at Ritenour Middle School asking about students. How we treat the most vulnerable measures all of us. Sign the petition to end local police collaborating with ICE. Link in bio. Sign buff.ly/Qx1pKTg

1/2 Nearby districts are losing students. Ritenour's enrollment is holding steady, and immigrant families are a big reason why. The district met them halfway: teachers trained for kids new to English, a health center, a food pantry. Teachers kept showing up for students, even in detention.

2/2 Then Jefferson City lawmakers shorted the school funding formula by $190 million this year. That took $3 million from Ritenour. Our immigrant neighbors don't strain our schools. They help keep them full.

1/2 Your landlord brings a lawyer to eviction court. In Kansas City, now you can too. In 2018, 6.4% of KC tenants had a lawyer. After right to counsel started in 2022, it's 20%, and the share of cases ending in eviction fell from 60.7% to 50.9%.

2/2 Renters organized for this. KC Tenants pushed the Tenant Bill of Rights through in 2019, & Kansas Citians marched for the right to a lawyer in 2021. Now the city puts $2.6M a year behind it. Facing eviction? Ask about right to counsel at your first hearing. Send this to someone behind on rent.

Tomorrow 8-10am! See you there

When workers show up loud enough, the cameras show up too. 🍞 On Labor Day, food service workers from all three Union Loafers shops rallied outside their front door, and St. Louis TV news covered it.

buff.lyFood Service Workers Bill of RightsPlease enable JavaScript in your browser

Their ask hasn't changed since: pay that keeps up with the cost of living, schedules they can plan a life around, and healthcare they can actually afford. ✍️ Sign the Food Service Workers Bill of Rights buff.ly/BqPqKVQ

1/3 Glendy and Nixon were our neighbors in Overland. Glendy organized with Fuerza. She was one of ours. ICE picked Nixon up in April 2025, and he was deported to Guatemala. Glendy, afraid of being deported without her three daughters, left to join him.

buff.lyStand with our Immigrant NeighborsPlease enable JavaScript in your browser