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| Kiener Plaza in St. Louis on Friday. |
Rally Girl brings us this update from Missouri, where
anti-worker legislation is being taken up by the Senate today:
The U.S. Shame-ber of Commerce's President Tom Donohue paid a visit to the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association on Friday—a visit that had Teamsters doing more than just talking.
Joint Council 13, in conjunction with the St. Louis Labor Council, held a rally against corporate greed on Friday to protest Donahue’s visit. Some lawmakers want to make Missouri a right-to-work (for LESS) state. The Shame-ber supports the bill as part of its agenda to lower workers' wages and destabilize working families by making it easier to attack unions and to ship jobs overseas.
More than 4,000 gathered in Kiener Plaza to send a message to Donohue and his cronies in the Missouri Legislature. Said Marvin Kropp, President of Teamsters Joint Council 13:
Enough is enough. We’re tired of politicians playing the same old games. After every election, they care more about punishing their opponents than solving the problems that face working families.
Protestors, who included community organizers and religious groups, pointed to a CNN report released in February that showed middle-class wages have remained steady since the 1980s while the incomes of the upper class—those making $380,000 or more—have increased by 33 percent. Kropp said:
This is just another blatant attack on workers’ rights. It’s time to stop the power struggle, restore the balance and focus on creating decent jobs in America.
