Missouri Labor Unions and Abortion Rights Groups Form Powerful Alliance for Ballot Initiatives
In Missouri, an unlikely alliance has formed between labor unions and reproductive rights groups, leading to significant success in recent ballot initiatives. This coalition has announced a $1 million campaign aimed at opposing Republican lawmakers who voted to repeal the state’s paid sick leave requirement. This partnership, which has evolved over years of shared battles against the Republican-controlled legislature on issues like abortion rights, worker protections, and the initiative petition process, has demonstrated its effectiveness at the ballot box. For instance, in 2018, voters repealed a right-to-work law, and in 2020, they expanded Medicaid. More recently, in 2024, they approved both abortion rights and a higher minimum wage with paid sick leave. This August, the coalition successfully worked together to defeat Amendments 4 and 5, which dealt with the initiative petition process and the elimination of the state income tax, respectively. According to Clarke Wheeler, a senior policy analyst with t... 
