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Voting Rights Legislation Advancing in the States

Photo by Michael Fleshman/Flickr Creative Commons

Despite a slate of state legislation attacking the rights of voters, a number of states are advancing legislation that would enhance the ability of U.S. citizens to exercise their right to choose their representatives. Among the most likely advances in voting rights in the states:

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Boosting the Minimum Wage in the States Is a No-Brainer

Illustration by Interfaith Workers Justice

With the federal minimum wage stuck at $7.25 an hour and an increase facing stiff opposition from congressional Republicans, coalitions  of union, community, faith and other groups are mobilizing to win increases in state and local minimum wage levels. Here’s a look at some recent wins and campaigns where AFL-CIO state federations and central labor councils are playing big roles.

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Juicy Buns, Justice and Tax Fairness

Photo by Bob Geary via Twitter

Justice triumphed in the squared circle in downtown Raleigh, N.C., in a masked Mexican luchadoras (female wrestlers) Tax Day rumble that pitted Juicy Buns, wrestling as “The People’s Champion,” against corporate-created and -backed “Champion of the Powerful,” The Scrambler.

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Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Boost the Housing Market: A Firsthand Account

Increasing the Minimum Wage Would Boost the Housing Market: A Firsthand Account

This is a cross-post, by Doug Foote, from Working America's Main Street blog

This week, Minnesota state Rep. Jason Metsa (D) is taking the Working America Minimum Wage Challenge—living on the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. He’ll report his experience back to the Minnesota legislature, where they are considering a bill to raise the minimum wage to $9.95.

On Wednesday, Metsa’s challenge was to find a place to live. Why a challenge? His budget that he set out on Monday allowed for only $359 a month for housing.

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Philadelphia Falls One Vote Short of Sick Days for Over 180,000 Workers

This is a cross-post from Working America's Main Street blog. 

With 12 votes needed, only 11 members of the Philadelphia City Council were willing to override Mayor Michael Nutter’s veto of the sick leave bill. For the second time in three years, corporate interests defeated a measure that would allow more than 180,000 Philadelphians to finally earn sick days.

“I’m very disappointed,” said city councilman Bill Greenlee, who tried but failed to get the 12 votes needed to override Mayor Nutter’s veto.  “I’m particularly disappointed for the 180,000 workers who could have had a benefit that other cities are providing.”

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LePage Pressures State Workers to Deny Claims for Jobless Benefits

Photo by Robert Bruce Murray III // Sort Of Natura/Flickr

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), whose disdain for working people is no secret, last month told state Labor Department hearing officers, who decide unemployment benefit appeals, that they better start deciding more of those cases in favor of employers who want those benefits denied, the Maine Sun Journal reports.  

At that gathering, LePage scolded about eight administrative hearing officers and their supervisors, complaining that too many cases on appeal from the Bureau of Unemployment were being decided in favor of employees. He said the officers were doing their jobs poorly, sources said.

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Don't Believe Us? Hear It from Workers: Missouri's Paycheck Deception Bill Is Bad for Working Families

Missouri's working families are speaking out about a paycheck deception bill that is moving through the state legislature.  We Are Missouri launched a new Tumblr blog, Working Voices, that showcases personal messages from Missouri working families to their elected representatives, asking them to reject the anti-worker agenda of the state legislature.  In this year's session, Republicans in the legislature have pursued an agenda that includes paycheck deception, attacks on prevailing wage laws, and "right to work" for less proposals that are part of what We Are Missouri describes as a larger national plan to assault the rights of workers.

Listen to teachers and utility, grocery store and factory workers (and more) talk about how paycheck deception will hurt working people. 

Check out We Are Missouri's Working Voices Tumblr for more stories

We Are Missouri is asking state residents to call their state representatives and tell them to reject the paycheck deception bill at 1-888-907-9711.

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Missouri Residents: Take Action to Stop Paycheck Deception Bill

Photo courtesy: We Are Missouri

Despite testimony overwhelmingly opposing the bill and universal opposition from the committee's Democrats, the Missouri legislature's House Workforce Development and Workplace Safety Committee passed S.B. 29, a paycheck deception bill, which is now headed to the House floor. Missouri working families went door to door last week to tell their neighbors about the problems with the bill, held numerous public rallies in opposition and flooded the Capitol with thousands of emails, letters and phone calls telling legislators to oppose the bill, which shut state workers out of the political conversation in Missouri.

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