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PAID SICK LEAVE AND HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE ON THE MISSOURI BALLOT  
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Kay Mills

Convergence
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_ “By challenging feelings of isolation and polarization, breaking
down division, and creating long-term relationships, we can achieve
our goal of building a democracy and economy that works for all of
us.” _

, Missouri Jobs With Justice

 

Convergence_ is pleased to be collaborating with the __Ballot
Initiative Strategy Center_ [[link removed]]_ on a series of
articles spotlighting progressive initiatives in play this election
season. This is the third article in the series; you can read the
first one here
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the second one here.
[[link removed]]_

When asked to sign a petition to put an initiative on the ballot for
paid sick leave and a raise in the minimum wage, one voter in
Springfield, MO seized the moment to talk with his 9-year-old daughter
about the value of her labor. After explaining the issue to her, he
asked, “When you start working, do you think you should make at
least $15 an hour?” She shrugged, unsure, and he responded, “Of
course you should, because your labor is valuable and you should be
paid what your labor is worth.” 

The year-long campaign to qualify the Missouri Minimum Wage and Earned
Paid Sick Time Initiative provided opportunities for thousands of
similar conversations about what’s necessary for workers and
families to thrive. Now on the November ballot as Proposition A, it
has opened the door to building relationships and power, breaking
isolation and effecting change.

“As polarization and cynicism take over our nation’s politics,
voters increasingly feel disengaged, disenfranchised or combative, as
if they are part of a reality show or a WWF match. Like many of our
allies around the country, we are faced with breaking through the
noise, figuring out how to have real conversations and connect with
voters in a meaningful way,” said  Caitlyn Adams, executive
director of Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action
[[link removed]], the
organization anchoring the “Missourians for Healthy Families and
Fair Wages” Coalition. Other coalition partners include Missouri
Worker Center, Abortion Action Missouri, Metropolitan Congregations
United, SEIU, UFCW, Action St. Louis.

How we got here

Missouri Jobs with Justice is a statewide power-building organization
committed to creating a democracy and economy that works for all of
us. We are everyday Missourians—workers, community members, faith
leaders, students, and union members—coming together to build a
Missouri where we can all thrive. Our over 100 member groups include
Laborers Local 955, Congregation Kol Ami, Action St. Louis, and
Missouri Rural Crisis Center. Our 500 individual members live across
the state in rural, urban and suburban areas. 

Although Missouri is considered a red state, we have a substantial
economic justice majority that has consistently voted with us on core
issues, voting against Right to Work and in favor of raising the
minimum wage in 2018 and expanding Medicaid in 2020. Despite the base
of economic justice voters statewide, partisan gerrymandering has
brought a conservative supermajority to power in the state
legislature. Democrats hold 51 out of 163 seats in the House, and 10
out of 34 seats in the Senate, and Republicans hold all the statewide
offices. We are constantly on defense against anti-worker policies
including efforts to undo legislation passed by voters, tax policies
that benefit only the very wealthy and corporations, and efforts to
destroy the citizen-led initiative petition process
[[link removed]]. To build power, we must
articulate the values we see on statewide ballot issues into durable
progressive power in our state. 

Our voter engagement strategy is grounded in our strong relationships
with other grassroots groups in Missouri, including labor unions,
Black-led organizations, and our fellow members of MOVE Action
[[link removed]], our statewide, grassroots voter engagement
table. 

Collectively, we acknowledge that Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter
Action is uniquely positioned to build relationships with the many
working and middle-class white families in our state who share our
core values around economic justice issues, but who are also the
targets of white nationalism and right-wing populism. Breaking through
racist dog whistles and forging an economic justice majority will
require a sustained engagement that positions our organization as a
trusted messenger and highlights how right-wing solutions leave all
working families behind. 

JWJ has historically been involved in the minimum wage and fighting
for a “living wage.” But we have always been about a more complete
experience of worker empowerment, which has led us into campaigns on
more social issues like police accountability, voting rights and, more
recently, reproductive freedom. On the economic front, over the past
five to 10 years we have been taking a more holistic approach to
compensation and moving beyond the frame of a living wage towards a
“family supporting economy,” something that includes not just
wages, but the benefits, both employer-provided and social, that
workers need for our families to thrive. This includes things like
paid sick and paid family leave and strong public infrastructure for
children.

We are moving beyond the frame of a living wage towards a “family
supporting economy,” something that includes not just wages, but the
benefits, both employer-provided and social, that workers need for our
families to thrive.

Proposition A builds on the minimum wage increase started in 2018,
when we raised the wage through a ballot initiative from $7.85 to $12
by a gradual increase of 85 cents a year.  Prop A will continue that
gradual increase by raising Missouri’s minimum wage to $13.75 in
January 2025 and to $15 in 2026. Proposition A is expected to raise
wages for over 550,000 Misosuri workers. With almost 750,000 workers
in Missouri currently lacking even a single minute of earned paid sick
time, choosing between going to work sick and paying their bills, Prop
A will also require employers to give one hour of paid sick time for
every 30 hours worked, giving one in three working parents access to
earned paid sick time

Over the last 12 months, Missouri Jobs with Justice and our partners
have mobilized over 850 leaders and activists from all corners of the
state. These activists were of different races, different gender
identities, different income levels and sometimes even different
politics. We knew we were doing something special when on the first
day of the campaign we mobilized over 150 Missourians and gathered
over 8200 signatures—the most signatures collected by grassroots
groups in one day in our collective history. Two months later we
smashed that record when nearly 200 Missourians braved high
temperatures to gather over 9,000 signatures during a municipal
election in the Kansas City region.

Across the state, workers support this ballot measure because they see
it as a way to make a real improvement in their lives. It has been a
space for educating and taking action on their values.

The process of gathering signatures is one of beginning dialogue, of
connection, and organizing. While out at an art event a volunteer
asked a woman with a 12-year-old son to sign the petition.  As she
signed the petition she told the volunteer that she didn’t have any
paid sick time. Her son was shocked and noted that he had been
completely unaware that his mom was expected to go to work when she
was sick or he was sick.  He immediately saw the injustice of
expecting workers to choose between their health and a paycheck. 

In our 25 years of on-the-ground organizing in Missouri, we have
learned that while voter engagement work tied to candidates and
electoral calendars can be an important tactic, building long-term
power depends on building long-term relationships with working people
that equip them to take action year-round. Deep canvassing is an
opportunity to connect with voters outside of the partisan sphere and
have longer in-depth conversations about issues to attempt to
understand their self-interest, to share stories and to offer paths to
connection. That is why we paired our signature-gathering efforts with
a statewide deep canvassing program. 

Deep canvassing

We prioritized knocking doors in suburban and rural Missouri and used
deep and relational canvassing techniques to engage in conversations
that gave people a place to discuss their concerns, misconceptions,
and biases about paid sick leave and raising the minimum wage. Around
the state, these conversations gave voters a chance to reflect on
times that they or someone they care about earned minimum wage, or
when they’ve had to miss work to stay home with a sick child.  By
spending that time connecting and being curious instead of making
assumptions, we were able to move people not only into signing the
petition, but also to getting more involved with our organization. 

Our deep canvassers utilized multiple techniques to connect with
people in the community. One deep canvasser was gathering signatures
at a local park and got a voter to sign the Healthy Families and Fair
Wages petition. The next week the same canvasser was going door to
door deep canvassing and ended up knocking on the same person’s
door. In the past, with traditional canvassing, we would have just
thanked her and moved on to the next house, but with clarity on
building our base, the voter had a conversation about why she
supported the issues and signed a pledge to get involved. With
intentional follow-up, this person attended a welcome meeting and has
stepped into a leadership position in the organization. 

With the HFFW petition, we knocked over 200,000 doors, had multiple
conversations with over 30,000 voters with over half signing the
petition. Similar to other places around the country, working people
in Missouri are pitted against each other based on where they live,
the color of their skin, what their jobs are, their citizenship
status, and how much they make, among other things. But we know that
working people have more in common than any differences and it is only
by talking and having real conversations that we can build a Missouri
that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and well-connected. 

Looking ahead

As we look ahead to November, we have a robust field plan that
includes deep canvassing in key regions into October, transitioning
that team to support traditional canvassing and get-out-the-vote
efforts for Prop A and Amendment 3
[[link removed]] through the election, and
returning to deep canvassing in mid-November. We have supported the
creation of the Missouri Inclusive Democracy Fund
[[link removed]], which is seeking to bring racial equity to
our electorate. We are engaging these newly registered voters on how
and why to vote after they are registered. 

In November, voters also have an opportunity to overturn Missouri’s
total ban on abortion by voting Yes on Amendment 3. Missouri Jobs with
Justice Voter Action endorsed the initiative and supported the
signature-gathering effort; we are talking with voters about both
Proposition A and Amendment 3 in our volunteer-led canvasses because
we are clear that both are economic justice issues.  

This election cycle will be the first election after redistricting,
which made a number of State Senate seats more competitive. We will
see big spending on the US Senate seat currently held by Josh Hawley.

Breaking isolation

While we will focus many resources on winning in November, JWJ will
continue our deep canvassing beyond the election because we believe
these relational conversations are the antidote to division and
isolation, and are critical to building the future we need.

Last spring, a canvasser knocked on the door of a union member who
lived in a conservative area. This person was grateful that someone
had knocked on his door because he had been wanting to sign the
petition but he told the canvasser that this would likely be the only
good conversation they would have in his neighborhood. At this, the
canvasser was able to let that voter know that that wasn’t the case.
They had already had several people who had shared his values and
signed the petition and he was not as isolated as he felt. 

Too many people in Missouri and beyond feel that isolation this man
was talking about. This isolation is keeping us from coming together.
However, it is through campaigns like this that show when people come
together to engage in politics not as  Republicans or  Democrats but
as workers we can see past what keeps us apart. By challenging these
feelings of isolation and polarization, breaking down division, and
creating long-term relationships, we can achieve our goal of building
a democracy and economy that works for all of us. 

_KAY MILLS is the political director with Missouri Jobs with Justice
[[link removed]]. Kay has been a political organizer in Missouri
since 1996, and holds a BA in political science from Washington
University in St. Louis.  Her experience includes work with Missouri
Jobs with Justice, Moms Clean Air Force, the Service Employees
International Union, Missouri NEA, UNITE HERE,  and various
political campaigns. Kay has worked on many issues in her career,
including fighting for expanded access to health care, an increase in
the minimum wage, and implementing clean power standards._

_CONVERGENCE is a magazine for radical insights. We produce articles,
videos, and podcasts to sharpen our collective practice, lift up
stories about organizing, and engage in strategic debate — all with
the goal of winning multi-racial democracy and a radically democratic
economy._

_CONVERGENCE is in the middle of our annual fund drive, and this year
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meaning more of every dollar pledged goes to fulfilling our
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support our work and be a part of Convergence's next evolution._

* elections
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* Missouri
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* Minimum Wage
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* Paid Sick Leave
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* ballot initiatives
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