Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom

The anti worker legislature trying to take us backwards and override our votes. Um, no.

LKING FOR RENTAL ASSISTANCE? The United Way of Greater Kansas City has set up a website to help navigate the different assistance programs depending on where you live. If you're in KC you can apply online for assistance. These assistance dollars could cover BACK RENT AND UTILITIES that have accumulated since April 1, 2020 and THREE MONTHS of future rent. ... https://www.unitedwaygkc.org/st/rent-assistance-application

MORATORIUM EXTENSION The CDC will extend the eviction moratorium until June 30, 2021. Remember: ... Declarations are required. Not all eviction cases are protected. Court is still in session. In Missouri check www.courts.mo.gov/casenet for up to date information on your individual case. Call United Way of Greater Kansas City 2-1-1 for rental assistance dollars. Questions on what this means for you? Call our legal help hotline (816) 278-1344. https://www.cnbc.com//cdc-will-extend-national-ban-on-evic

WHAT IS IN THE AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN FOR WORKERS? ***No minimum wage increase. Unacceptable. But that fight continues. ***A robust child tax credit for most families with children. You do not have to wait for your tax refund to receive it. The IRS will begin sending monthly payments in July - make sure your information with the IRS is up-to date. In our view, this poverty busting measure should be made permanent. Families can use it to pay for childcare, housing, food, car... payments or whatever they find fit. ***Extended unemployment. Supplemental unemployment of $300 per month has been extended to September 6. Many people qualify who normally would not so be sure to apply if you lost your job. ***Stimulus check of $1,400 (for those who make less than $75k/$150k if married) ***More rental relief. If you are short on rent, be sure to call 211 and seek assistance. There is much more funding available now than there normally is. Read more here! https://www.npr.org//heres-whats-in-the-american-rescue-pl

Who could say it better than Stand Up KC's Terrence Wise? The answer to food insecurity is a union.

Well no sweating today but you get the point....

We are essential!

Stand Up KC workers don’t back down to sub zero temps. The cold weather will pass but poverty wages won’t without a fight. So we are here!

Gina here. Take a look below if you can. Stand Up KC workers taught me that when we bridge racial divides in the workplace, the result is POWERFUL! Our numbers are bigger, our impact more powerful, our protests more spirited. Worker organizing gives workers the place to come together and concretely see that anti-immigrant, racist, sexist, and homophobic beliefs sap their power in numbers. And in the process of uniting, we all become more human, more connected, more uplifted. This is the torch that can lead us away from these polarized, exploitative, times. Thanks, Bridget Hughes, for telling this story!

Success! No business as usual today. Thanks to years of organizing we have the mayor out here and the president elect calling for $15! We need a union too. A little snow can’t scare us! Poverty wages, no paid sick days, unsafe workplaces, faaar scarier.

Happy birthday, Frederick Douglass, always a source of inspiration, pride and conviction.

Awesome turnout for MLK day and fast food worker strike!! Go Stand Up KC!!

It wasn't easy for Delisha to share this story publicly but she did it because she understands that organizing and telling your story is how we stop widespread sexual harassment at McDonald's and throughout the fast-food industry. Fast food workers deserve respect, safety, and a union! We are proud to represent Delisha and other workers in this fight for change. https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-faces-new-sexual-

Time to strike! Workers need unions, livable wages AND affordable housing and THIS is how it’s done. We’ll be there! https://fb.me/e/3gXlcPEzF

Jackson County has stopped all evictions today through Jan 24. Evictions could begin again on Jan 25 if action isn't taken. This order only applies to Jackson County, Missouri. Gina has more details here.

The number of Chiala’s at the Heartland Center just doubled!! Welcome Gina’s niece and Heartland Center fall intern, Siena!

Thank you Nurture KC for inviting us!

We are seeing COVID-19 cases surging again, including in meatpacking plants where OSHA oversight has been near nonexistent, and many health & safety restrictions are being eased or rolled back, risking the lives of workers, their families, and communities. https://www.nytimes.com//economy/osha-coronavirus-meat.html

Just thirty minutes until tonight’s townhall.

Today would be freedom fighter, Fannie Lou Hamer’s 103 birthday. At 44 years old Fannie Lou learned she could register to vote. But as a black woman and worker in the white supremacist south of 1962, registering to vote, of course, was a fiction. When Fannie Lou went to register she was denied because she failed to pass their literacy test. On the way home the police harassed her and she was later forced off the land she had long worked as a tenant farmer. Undeterred, Fann...ie Lou joined with others and continued to fight for the right to vote and, in 1964, she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and later, the National Women’s political caucus. Let’s mark Fannie Lou’s birthday by registering to vote and making sure our friends and family do the same. Racist forces are taking our country backward and voting is one of many weapons we can and must wield to stop it. Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote in Missouri. Even if you’re registered it’s a good time to check to make sure your information is current. Vote to defend the legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer and all of those freedom fighters who have given so much in the fight for equality and justice.

Join us this Friday!

Thank you to Jamie Thurman, represented by the Heartland Center team, for sharing your story in this in-depth piece on the eviction crisis and the moratorium. https://www.cnn.com//covid-evictions-cdc-morato/index.html

A note from our E.D. about the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: As lawyers, we stand on the shoulders of national heroes, sung and unsung. Our civil rights laws, labor protections, voting laws, laws protecting free speech, equal treatment, the right to due process, housing rights, reproductive rights, and on and on - these rights exist because truly remarkable people joined together and fought for them - sacrificing in extraordinary ways, many with their lives. These are national... heroes. They changed our country and breathed life into ideals that rang hollow. When we assert the rights they won, we conjure their revolutionary spirits, and it is such an honor to do, even though such laws still fall so extremely short of all we must change as a nation. As we grieve the loss of the tenacious and powerful gatekeeper, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we must honor and grieve these heroes too. It is their fight that will be desecrated if Trump succeeds in appointing RBG's replacement, because the victories they won will be rolled back. And, of course, the consequences of losing even more power on the court will land most heavily on people of color, workers, the poor, Indigenous people, the environment. I am reminding myself, however, that if those heroes taught us anything, it is that institutions are not static, that we decide what matters in this country, and movements can win against incredible odds. And so, I think about how Medger Evers, Charles Hamilton Houston, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harvey Milk, Fred Hampton, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Crazy Horse, Anna Mae Aquash, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the suffragettes, the UFW, IWW, the CIO, SNCC, and countless others, make our courts both hallowed ground, as their blood, sweat and tears have been spilled there, AND one of the many battlefields that is ours to win or lose as we march ahead. See more

Exactly.... Despite A New Federal Ban, Many Renters Are Still Getting Evicted https://one.npr.org/i/911939055:912612326

The exhausting battle low wage workers wage to stay afloat during these daunting times is well told here by Bridget Hughes of Stand Up KC and other workers. https://www.thebeacon.media//months-into-the-pandemic-low-

Lawyers and organizers unite to expand tenants’ rights! KC Tenants

WHAT: Tenant Q&A on the National Eviction Moratorium WHO: KC Tenants + Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom WHEN: Thursday Sept. 10 at 5pm ... WHERE: KC Tenants Facebook Live Drop your questions in the comments and we will get them answered!

YES! We stand with you Stand Up KC workers and ALL essential workers who continue to feed people, care for people, and run all of the essential parts of life during these dangerous times. Much love to you all and to Richard and Fran, the unstoppable fighters for worker power. Happy Labor Day.