Jobs and Labor

Minimum Wage: U.S. Secretary Of Labor Seth Harris Is Meeting With St. Louis Workers

Earlier this month, St. Louis got national attention when local fast-food workers participated in a major rally demanding better pay. Some of them spoke of particularly terrible conditions and harassing bosses in local restaurants. And today, the acting head of the United States Department of Labo ... More >>

UPDATE 5: More Layoffs at the Post-Dispatch; Don't Worry, Mary Junck and Her Bonuses Are Fine

[UPDATE 5: Latest news out of 900 North Tucker is that 23 people have been laid off at the Post-Dispatch today, 13 in the newsroom and 10 more in advertising. Absolutely brutal news for our daily paper, and for the St. Louis community today.][UPDATE 4: The current tally, according to social media dy ... More >>

Food Editor Judith Evans Among Post-Dispatch Layoffs

As Daily RFT reported this morning, the Post-Dispatch is currently in the process of laying off an unknown number of editorial employees. Among those already notified is Judith Evans, a 26-year veteran of the Post-Dispatch; for the last nineteen years, she was the paper's food editor. "I got a phon ... More >>

Sad Coda for Today's Post-Dispatch News

As you may have heard, the Post-Dispatch laid off 23 employees today. The company announced the development eventually, in this unbylined story. Is it unbylined because no one wanted to write it, or because there was no one left to write it, edit it and produce an image to accompany it? Lee Enterpri ... More >>

Working and Not Working: DW Gibson Talks About His Conversations With America's Unemployed

For many journalists, including DW Gibson, Studs Terkel's Working, originally published in 1974, remains a touchstone. Terkel took his tape recorder out into the streets of Chicago and interviewed some 200 people about what they did all day and how they felt about it, and then edited their responses ... More >>

Akin, Brunner and Steel Don't Know the Minimum Wage

​Todd Akin, John Brunner and Sarah Steelman, the three Republicans running for the Missouri Senate, all participated in a debate hosted by KMOX. Moderator Charlie Brennan threw 'em all for a loop when he asked them what the federal minimum wage is, and if they would vote to increase it. Brunner ad ... More >>

Steelman For Payroll Tax Cut, Akin Against Payroll Tax Cut, Brunner... Against?

​A few days ago, the Springfield News-Leader published a Q&A with the three candidates in Missouri's GOP Senate primary race. It's still early in the race and Sarah Steelman, Rep. Todd Akin and John Brunner have all positioned themselves as rock solid conservative candidates. As such, it's a ... More >>

14 Arrested in Occupy St. Louis March and Demonstration; Total Arrests Now at 51

Photos: Tony D'SouzaOccupy STL protesters march to the MLK Bridge yesterday afternoon.​If city officials thought that last weekend's forced eviction of Occupy St. Louis' tent encampment from Kiener Plaza would spell the end of the movement, they were mistaken. Yesterday nearly 1,000 Occupy support ... More >>

Minimum-Wage Hike Could Land on Missouri's 2012 Ballot

Change Missourians can believe in?​Missouri may be a red state when it comes to politics, but two initiatives that hope to land on the November 2012 ballot could bring the left-wing base out in droves next year. On Monday it was a proposal to ask Missourians to legalize marijuana. On Tuesday it wa ... More >>

Union Workers to Join Occupy St. Louis for Major Demonstration Today

Photo: Brian VillaToday's march promises to be several times larger than Occupy STL's first demonstration (above) on October 1.​Several hundred -- perhaps as many as a thousand -- union workers are expected to join members of the Occupy St. Louis movement this afternoon for a massive march through ... More >>

Post-Dispatch Sued (Again) Over Retiree Benefits

​The beleaguered St. Louis Post-Dispatch -- already fending off a lawsuit from the Newspaper Guild over retiree benefits -- now faces another suit from the union representing its mailroom workers.The CWA Local 14620, also known as the St. Louis Mailers Union No. 3, represents the 220 employees who ... More >>

Governor Nixon Toys With City's Hopes for Local Control in Special Session

Will Governor Nixon throw St. Louis a bone this September?​On Wednesday, Mayor Francis Slay wrote on his blog and the Post-Dispatch reported that a bill to bring local control to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department would be included in the special session now being planned for Septemb ... More >>

Teachers Union Case v. Charter School District Going to MO Supreme Court

Teachers' rights to bargain collectively in Missouri are now headed to the state supreme court.​Are Missouri school boards required to collectively bargain with unions representing their faculties -- and, even more importantly, to do so in good faith?That's the question now heading to the Missouri ... More >>

MO Supreme Court Will Decide FOP Status for U. City, Chesterfield Police

The appellate court found that police officers do have a right to collective bargaining -- but then kicked the case to the Missouri Supreme Court.​Are the cities of Chesterfield and University City required to enter into collective bargaining with the Fraternal Order of Police?That was the questio ... More >>

Deal for Local Control of St. Louis Police Flies in Face of Conventional Logic

Local Control, the movie.​St. Louis City Hall and the St. Louis Police Officers Association announced yesterday that they've struck a deal that could return control of the department back to the city for the first time in 150 years. In doing so, the city bucked a nationwide trend by guarante ... More >>

Laid-Off Firefighters Want to Pump Your Stomach with Booze

This man can douse your burning liver. ​First they were employed. Then they were told they'd be laid off. Then they learned their jobs would be saved ... but only after they lost them. Now they're unemployed. But not for long. Confused yet? So are we. This calls for a drink! This afternoon ... More >>

Does Making Missouri More "Job Friendly" Always Require Screwing the Working Class?

New proposals would allow Missouri employers to really crack that whip.​The question above immediately comes to mind when considering a spate of "pro business" proposals currently being debated in Jefferson City. One of the proposals would repeal Missouri's minimum wage law, allowing employers to ... More >>

Unions Lining Up Opposition to Rex Sinquefield's Prop A

It's definitely not fair to say that donations from local unions and their counterparts in Washington, D.C., will even the playing field with Rex Sinquefield. The St. Louis zillionaire has already donated an astonishing $10.8 million toward his campaign to force a vote on earnings taxes in St. Louis ... More >>

KKK Propagandist Forced to Resign From Union Leadership

The union leader accused of passing out pro-KKK business cards on a St. Louis job site didn't just get booted from the job, as we reported this morning -- the union has just confirmed that they've also removed him from a leadership role.Pro-KKK literature cost one man his leadership position at a lo ... More >>

The Chefs Get Richer and the Clientele Get Fatter

Has it been a year? Already? Yes, once again, as it has been since 1957, July is National Hot Dog Month! According to National Hot Dog & Sausage Council president and self-described "Queen of Wien" Janet Riley., "On Independence Day, Americans will enjoy 150 million hot dogs, enough to stretch from ... More >>

St. Louis Union Construction Workers Too Lazy and Costly, Says Head of Union

Terry Nelson drops the hammer on his carpenter colleagues.​The head of the St. Louis Carpenters' District Council of Greater St. Louis is making waves for comments he recently made in the press, blaming his members for being unproductive and contributing to ever-growing construction costs in the r ... More >>

Write or wrong: Readers debate the firing of reporter Todd Smith, who was shot at Kirkwood City Hall

AB InBev To Lay Off 1,000 in St. Louis

Anheuser-Busch InBev employees are buzzing about imminent job cuts in the wake of InBev's recent acquisition of St. Louis' corporate crown jewel. The company today announced that it would cut 1,400 jobs in the United States, about 75 percent of them (1,050 jobs) in St. Louis. According to ... More >>

Joe Bonwich Still on the Menu

Eighteen to be Laid Off Today at Post-Dispatch

Post-Dispatch Lays Off Seventeen, Including its Primary Crime Reporter

The Post-Dispatch is shedding news pages and slashing editorial staff – and there's no end in sight

Striker's Guilt

Chesterfield's Paul Guyot feels isolated from his fellow picketers in Hollywood.

Bad Blood

Ever hear the one about the unions and the convention bureau?

Lee Way

Is the P-D the "red-headed stepchild" of the Lee empire?

Nuclear Option

A new weapon is unveiled to end the beer battle

Well, Where Have You Been Grocery Shopping These Last Three Weeks?

Week of November 5, 2003

Strike Three

Managers park semis, regulars get crabby and allegations fly

Sol Brothers

Mondays in the Sun takes a whimsical look at unemployment on the coast of Spain

Series/Festivals

Week of August 13, 2003

Purple Power

In less than four years, Grant Williams has turned a weak union local into one of Missouri's most potent political forces. So why's he placing all his bets on One-Term Bob?

Answering the Call

IRS employees bring Jesus to the office -- and manage to raise Cain

Happy Hour

Casa Gallardo

More Please, Sir

Posties want a raise -- a big one

In the Line of Fire

An Olivette firefighter becomes the target of the city manager

Labor Pains

The New Line Theatre presents a legendary play that tackles unions, press, religion, the rich, even musicians and artists

Pipe Schemes

The powerful Pipefitters union has a simple plan to provide job security for its members: It wants to take away other people's work.

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, TWA UNION EXEC GOING DOWN

Did Tom Brown's tough stance against the W-1W Lambert expansion plan cost him his union position?

JUST DESERTS

Al DeLassus loses both a bid to become secretary-treasurer of Local 655 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and his shop-steward job

Greasing the Skids

Unicom takes flak over flacking for Wal-Mart

NORMA RAE, R.N.

Nurses at St. John's Mercy Medical Center vote to unionize

Short Cuts

Internal Bleeding

St. John's Mercy Medical Center alienated their RNs when they turned to less experienced caregivers to save money. Now they're paying for it.

Historial Present

Computing Salaries