I had nightmares all night last night. I know why. I went to bed with a pit in my stomach. I’m not one to cry often, but do you know how hard it is to fight against a supermajority, get a win, and then have that win stripped away by a Governor’s signature?

We gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to put bodily autonomy and a higher minimum wage and earned sick time on the ballot.

It won. It all won.

A few days ago, the Missouri GOP rolled back the earned sick time for Missouri workers. The earned sick time we just approved on a ballot in November. Workers began receiving it on May 1, 2025. Earned sick time will be signed away by our Governor on August 28.

They don’t care.

Can I tell you a story I heard a nurse once recall? Jen Hamilton is an OB nurse who posts online content to a large audience. She recently told this story with permission:

Jen was working triage in the ER when a woman in a fast-food uniform came running in with something wrapped in a blanket. Jen motioned for the woman to come to her…as Jen opened the bundle, she saw a baby not breathing inside the blanket.

The ER sprang into action and tried to clear the baby’s airway, but there was no obstruction. The panicked mom told the care team that she had to work and the baby was left in the care of her mother and her niece. Her mother was on Hospice care and her niece was only eight years old.

The nurses and doctors asked for more information and as mom tried to relay what she knew, dad came running into the ER…also in a fast food uniform. Neither could take off for their sick daughter. They were both at work when the baby stopped breathing.

Mom then told the most devastating news: the baby started running a fever, and the eight-year-old called mom at work to ask her what to do. Mom instructed the little girl to go to the medicine cabinet and give the baby a dose of Motrin. The eight-year-old saw a bottle labeled “morphine” and mistakenly gave it to the baby.

The good news is that nurses and doctors were able to save the baby. The bad news is that this sort of story is not uncommon.

I spoke at a rally in Kansas City yesterday on the GOP overturning our will on sick time and a higher minimum wage and reproductive rights. There were a few hundred who showed up on the Plaza to show solidarity. To show that we won’t go quietly after working so hard to get humanity for folks who deserve it and need it…just like the mom and dad in the ER.

I lived outside of Baltimore, Maryland for about six months several years ago. I had two young boys at the time and I secured my first teaching job in the city. I was married, but he was deployed, so I was on my own.

My youngest was in preschool and I couldn’t drop him off until 7 am every morning. I was supposed to be in my classroom by 7 am. There was no way I could make it work on time, and I usually came in about 10 minutes late each morning — before the first bell but after my contracted time.

I was late every day and there was nothing I could do about it. I was warned at least once a week that I would be disciplined if I didn’t find another daycare. I couldn’t find another daycare and I was terrified every day. I was waiting to be fired from the job I needed to pay for rent and food and the daycare that made me late every day.

Within two weeks of starting my teaching position, my older son came down with strep throat. His school called my school and I had to take off to get him to the doctor. He was still sick the next day and I stayed with him, riling my employer.

The next month, my son came down with another fever…the strep had returned. I knew I couldn’t stay home with him. That day, I left him at home with a neighbor checking in hourly. I couldn’t be fired, but I knew an 11-year-old shouldn’t be home alone — I ended up only working a few hours so I wouldn’t be fired, but left early because I couldn’t stand the thought of him alone and sick.

There was nothing I could do. Between a rock and a hard place.

I have witnessed other teachers bringing their sick children to work and trying to hide them in their classroom. We all know someone who has had to pick up and sick kid and then drag them back to work with them.

There is often no alternative.

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These are decisions that working people face each day and voters in Missouri decided to give working people earned sick time. An hour of sick time for every 30 hours worked. Six weeks of work for one earned sick day…that was a bridge too far for the Republicans in Missouri.

The Missouri House and the Senate voted to throw out our voter-approved proposition and Governor Mike Kehoe seems to be set to sign it out of law within weeks.

But here’s something that really sticks in my craw: The Missouri House and Senate members have sick time. They can stay home when they aren’t well or when their children are sick even though they deny that right to working Missourians.

Here is a post by Senator Cindy O'Laughlin just two years ago on taking off time from work because she was sick. It was after session, but during the time she should be out talking to her constituents:

Just days ago, Senator Cindy O’Laughlin made this statement on earned sick leave for working Missourians: “Our side of the aisle has great concern for the burden that this would place on businesses,” she told reporters Thursday, “and if we’re going to promote economic growth and jobs, we need to really be cognizant of that.”

There it is…paid sick leave for me, but not for thee. She states that letting working folks earn sick time is a burden on businesses and so her party voted to throw it out.

Senator O’Laughlin and her GOP colleagues are willfully overturning the votes of almost 58% of Missourians who wanted to make life easier for their neighbors. The Republicans don’t care that many of us suffer under a system that forces us to bear children — there is still practically no way to obtain an abortion in this state — and then force us to leave our children when they are sick. A system that also forces us to work when we are sick.

And that’s it, friend. We live under the boot of autocracy and oligarchy and the citizens of Missouri live and work under the whim of a GOP supermajority. The GOP will stand with the wealthy donors who fill their coffers to keep sick pay and a higher minimum wage away from working people.

Missouri Republicans overturn our will and our vote and stand against working people.

They don’t care.

~Jess