ABOUT US

July

In July 2013, fast food workers across Kansas City walked off their jobs for the first time to demand $15 per hour and the right to form a union without retaliation. This one-day strike kicked off over a decade of organizing by low-wage workers under the banner of Stand Up KC to build a multiracial working class movement with the expansive vision of “Defeating Racism and Winning Good Jobs for All.”

Over the next 8 years, Stand Up KC organized thousands of fast food and other low-wage workers to take action in over a dozen one-day strikes and numerous civil disobedience actions. Workers participated in organizing committee meetings, and shared their stories with local and national media including the Kansas City Star, New York Times, and Washington Post. Terrence Wise, Bridget Hughes, and Richard Eiker traveled to Ireland, England, and Brazil to inspire an international movement of low-wage workers.

In 2015, workers and their allies occupied the steps of KCMO City Hall and fasted for a week to push the city to raise the minimum wage to $13 per hour. The measure passed 12-1 but was later overturned when the Missouri legislature preempted local wage increases.

Later that year, Stand Up KC launched The Langston Hughes Club, an art and culture committee bringing together low-wage workers to learn skills and tools from professional artists and produce work of artistic expression from a poor and working class perspective. I, Too, Am America, a photography exhibit and the first for the committee, debuted photographs taken by 20 workers depicting a first person perspective of the life of fast food workers. The exhibit won local acclaim, was reproduced in Detroit and London, and was lauded in the New York Times arts and culture section.

October

In October 2015, Stand Up KC leader Terrence Wise introduced then-President Barack Obama at the White House Summit on Worker Voice. Terrence, a second generation fast food worker, was joined by his mother from South Carolina. It was the first time the two had seen each other in almost 20 years.

In 2017, workers and their allies attempted to raise the wage again through a local ballot measure. The initiative would have raised the city minimum wage to $15 by 2020 and passed with 68% of the vote. Again the ordinance was preempted by state lawmakers.

In 2018, workers joined the national Poor People’s Campaign and engaged in eight weeks of civil disobedience at the state capitol to revive Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s effort to unite poor and working class people around the country and root out poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological devastation. Over 250 workers across the state were arrested as part of the demonstrations.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed fast food and other essential workers to the front lines while the rest of us had the privilege of working from home. Workers fought for personal protective equipment and quarantine pay, and when employers like McDonalds continued to callously ignore workers’ demands, fast food workers went on strike and led massive car caravans through the streets of Kansas City.

Missouri Workers Center is Born

Building on the success and momentum of Stand Up KC, the Missouri Workers Center was officially founded in 2021 to bring new resources and strategic direction to the Kansas City campaign and expand organizing into new geographies and emerging industries like e-commerce. At a Stand Up KC general membership meeting workers voted unanimously to affiliate with the new statewide organization.

Within six months of its founding, MWC partnered with Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom and local tenant advocacy groups to win a Tenants’ Right to Counsel policy in Kansas City, MO. The measure, which passed 11-1 by KCMO City Council, guarantees the right to an attorney in eviction court and provides free legal services to anyone who requests it.

After a deadly tornado hit Amazon’s DLI4 facility in Edwardsville, IL, MWC joined with the family members of workers whose lives were lost and workers who survived the disaster to fight for wind safety standards and the right to refuse unsafe work during climate disasters. This led to MWC launching a broader Amazon worker organizing campaign in the region.

Amazon workers organizing in St. Peters, MO, with support from MWC, launched the STL8 Organizing Committee, an organization of Amazon workers dedicated to fighting for safer work, better pay, and the right to form a union without retaliation. STL8 is Amazon’s largest facility in the state, with over 3,500 workers.

MWC convened organizations around the state to form the Local Control Steering Committee. Having experienced the impact of corporate-driven preemption on poor and working people statewide, MWC began to strategize and organize to overturn these harmful laws and win back the freedom for local elected officials to pass laws that improve the health and well-being of workers and communities.

On Black Friday, STL8 Organizing Committee members walked off of their jobs at Amazon to demand higher wages, safer working conditions, and a union. This strike marked the first time that US Amazon workers went on strike in concert with workers internationally, a major moment for worker organizing in St. Louis, highlighting the strength of the growing movement in the city.

The Kansas City Royals held a public meeting at Westport Middle School in Kansas City to announce their intentions to build a new downtown baseball stadium. Knowing the false promises and negative impacts of stadium development, MWC brought together community and labor organizations to form the Good Jobs and Affordable Housing for All (GJAH) coalition to demand a strong Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with living-wage union jobs and truly affordable housing in and around the development.

During many public and private meetings with the Royals, the GJAH coalition made our demands clear and provided a clear roadmap for a CBA. When presented with a Memorandum of Understanding outlining a plan to begin formal CBA negotiations, the team refused to sign.

Missouri Workers Center, in partnership with Missouri Jobs with Justice and other community and labor organizations, launched the Healthy Families Fair Wages campaign to finally raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and guarantee up to seven days of earned paid sick leave for workers across the state.

Workers in the Amazon STL8 Organizing Committee produced and starred in the Workers Opera, a project of Bread and Roses Missouri. The play debuted weeks before Amazon’s Annual General Meeting, where STL8 leader Yvonda Clopton was proxy on a shareholder resolution calling for an independent health and safety audit of the company.

In December, the Royals and Jackson County Legislators introduced an ordinance that, if passed, would generate $2 billion in sales tax revenue from Jackson County residents to finance construction and maintenance of a new stadium and entertainment district in the Crossroads Art District. GJAH packed the legislature and vocally opposed the measure, demanding “Nothing about us without us!”

Winning in the Streets and at the Ballot Box

The Royals finally agreed to enter into negotiations with GJAH on the condition that the coalition agreed to allow the Royals’ sales tax measure to go to the ballot for approval by voters. For weeks, low-wage workers, tenants, and community leaders negotiated over the agreement at two separate tables. When it became clear that the Royals were unwilling to negotiate in good faith, members of the coalition released a letter announcing our exit from negotiations and held a rally to voice our opposition to the sales tax measure. In April 2023, after MWC launched a robust “Good Jobs Voter”campaign, voters sided with low-wage workers and tenants to oppose the Royals financing scheme 58-42.

STL8 leader Wendy Taylor traveled to DC to join Senators Ed Markey, Tina Smith, and Bob Casey at the introduction of the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, legislation that would protect warehouse workers by prohibiting dangerous work speed quotas that lead to high rates of worker injuries and requiring companies to disclose what quotas apply to workers. A few months later, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee (HELP) released an interim report detailing the health and safety crisis in Amazon warehouses and specifically naming STL8 as a site of its investigation. Finally the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) issued five complaints against Amazon for violations of health and safety standards at STL8.

In 2023, KCMO City Council authorized the Kansas City Area Transit Authority to create the IRIS microtransit rideshare program, who then contracted with zTrip/WHC Worldwide — the largest private taxi service in the country — to run the program. With support from MWC, IRIS drivers organized and publicly launched their campaign to demand fair pay, an end to unjust and exploitative fees, the right to form a union without retaliation, and better public transit.

After over a decade of fast food and other low-wage workers fighting for $15 an hour, Missouri will raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and guarantee up to 7 days of paid sick leave. Missouri Workers Center gathered over 30,000 signatures and knocked over 20,000 doors to pass the measure 57.5-42.5 (a 15-point margin!), raising wages for over 500,000 workers and giving over 750,000 access to earned paid sick leave. MWC also supported a constitutional amendment to overturn Missouri’s extreme total ban on abortion. The measure passed 51-49, enshrining the right to an abortion in the state constitution.