The activation of Proposition A’s paid sick leave benefits is a fitting tribute to International Workers Day, which working people around the world celebrate on the first of May. Starting today, Missourians have the right to an hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked to take care of their own health, the health of their loved ones, or to deal with the consequences of domestic violence.
Missouri’s business lobby opposes these benefits. The business lobby has opposed every attempt to write dignity for working people into this country’s law books back to the first May Day in 1886, when the fight for the eight-hour day brought workers to the streets of Chicago. They’ve always been wrong on the facts: predicting dire economic consequences that never transpired as the country shortened the working day, banned child labor, and instituted minimum wages and protections against workplace injuries. Evidence from jurisdictions that already guarantee earned sick time — many other states and virtually every other country — clearly indicates that paid sick leave will promote both health and prosperity.
But the facts aren’t the point: HB 567, which would gut Proposition A’s paid sick leave benefit, is class legislation, pure and simple — a transfer from the class of people who work for a living to the class of people who live off the product of other people’s work. Its backers understand that Missourians would not vote to pick their own pockets for their boss’s benefit, which is why they sat out the election that resoundingly endorsed Proposition A in favor of a fight in the backrooms of a bought-and-paid-for state legislature.
We have come a long way since the first May Day. These gains were won through the effort and determination of the organized working class. Missouri’s DSA chapters were a proud part of the coalition that made Proposition A a reality, gathering thousands of signatures to put it on the ballot. To join us in protecting Proposition A in the remainder of the legislative session, sign up here. To join the broader fight for economic democracy, join DSA today.