By Doug Cunningham

Campaigns to raise state minimum wages are underway in seventeen states. Initiatives to raise the minimum wage are on ballots in Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada and Montana. Labor organizers believe these initiatives will drive more Democratic voters to the polls. Rebekah Friend is President of the Arizona AFL-CIO.

[Rebekah Friend]: “We are talking to union members, we are working with community organizations that are out talking to communities. We are out in force. We expect to increase the voter turnout based on this issue."

Randy Kiser directs Labor 2006 in Missouri where a massive effort is underway by labor and allied groups to get out the vote and to win a minimum wage increase.

By Doug Cunningham

More than 70 labor groups are suing the state of Missouri over changes in the Worker's Comp system that could slash benefits in half for some workers killed or injured on the job. Sherwood Smith is President of the State Council of Firefighters in Missouri.

[Sherwood Smith] "We think that there should be some umbrella of protection that we had in the past. I mean we are not trying to enhance it in any way. We are saying at the very minimum we should at least have what we had before."

By Doug Cunningham

Missouri Republican U.S. Senator Jim Talent is courting the Carpenters union for support in next year's election. Democrats have made unseating Talent a top priority. Talent met privately last week with Carpenters local and national leaders. In return for union support , Talent and Missouri's Republican governor have reportedly offered not to turn Missouri into a so-called "Right To Work" state.

By Doug Cunningham

Missouri Republicans -led by Gov. Matt Blunt - are carrying out the most extreme Medicaid cuts in the nation, according to an Illinois attorney trying to stop what he says are illegal cuts aimed at the poorest and sickest people in Missouri. Attorney Thomas Kennedy the state is cutting payments for wheelchairs, hospital beds, breathing aids and other durable medical equipment that more than 300,000 people in Missouri are depending on.

[Thomas Kennedy 1] : "These cuts are unparalleled not just in Missouri but in the United States. I'm not familiar with anyplace where cuts like this have been made. This is unbelievable. And people are suffering like crazy on account of it. And it's illegal. Just plain, dead bang illegal in my opinion."

Republican Governor Matt Blunt has signed a bill eliminating Medicaid in Missouri by 2008. It's the first step in wiping out the Medicaid coverage of 100,000 of Missouri's poorest people. A committee is supposed to report back by January on a replacement program for Medicaid. Mike Hoey (Hoy) is a spokesman for the Missouri Catholic conference. He says this action violates the Catholic Church's culture of life philosophy because providing basic human dignity, including medical care, to the least among us is a moral obligation of government.

[Mike Hoey] : "It definitely is a part of the culture of life. We've found for example that when Medicaid health coverage for pregnant women - when Missouri expanded that from like 133 to a 185 percent of the federal poverty level - the very next year the number of abortions went down dramatically. So we do think that it is a part of the culture of life to ensure that people have health coverage."

Two newly elected Republican governors have wiped out collective bargaining for state employees in Missouri and in Indiana. Ken Jacob with Missouri's American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees
says Gov. Matt Blunt's assault on collective bargaining rights should be resisted.

[Ken Jacob]: "The right to organize and to collectively bargain is a fundamental right and it needs to be fought for like all rights."

The state of Missouri¹s Rapid Response Team is meeting today with some of the 900 Ford workers facing layoff early next year at Ford¹s St. Louis plant. The plant¹s second shift is being eliminated. The Rapid Response team tries to help workers get transfers, new jobs or training for new careers. These services are provided to the Ford workers free of charge. Missouri¹s governor worked with Ford to try and keep work at the St. Louis plant, but the second shift will be eliminated nonetheless.

A collective bargaining battle in Missouri has escalated, with the state now appealing a judge’s order upholding state employee union’s right to collect “fair-share” fees from workers who benefit from contracts but aren’t actually members of the unions. The outgoing Democratic Governor,
Bob Holden, issued an executive order allowing those collections. But Republican Secretary of State and now governor-elect Matt Blunt is against it and refused to implement the order. A judge ruled against him and for the unions but now Blunt says he will rescind the order as soon as he takes power as governor in January. The state of Missouri is appealing the pro-union decision and wants the order put on hold while the appeal process unfolds. Missouri Gov. Bob Holden in 2001 issued an executive order granting collective bargaining rights to thousands of state workers. He also granted state employee unions the right to collect those “fair-share” fees. This is one of the first post-election skirmishes between labor and Republicans.