CLAYCOMO, Mo. — Missouri labor and reproductive rights groups gathered at UAW Local 249's office in Claycomo, Missouri, on Saturday to rally and canvass in support of Proposition A and Amendment 3 on the November ballot.
Proposition A would incrementally increase Missouri's minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and require all employers to provide employees with paid sick leave. Amendment 3 would amend Missouri's constitution to remove the state's ban on abortion.
Ashley Ball was in attendance at the rally with Stand Up KC. She is advocating for paid sick leave for all workers in Missouri.
"Me personally, I've dealt with myself and my children being sick, as well as homelessness," she said.
Ball said she is "finally" stable and back on her feet, but she worries about what will happen if either she or her three children get sick.
"I could instantly be right back where I started," she said.
Ball brought her children to the rally and to canvass.
"It's important for them to know that there is a will, there is a way, and that change can not be created without us," she said. "We are the change."
Terrence Wise, a board member of the Missouri Workers Center, was also at the event.
"Folks who don't have paid sick leave suffer here in Missouri," he said.
Wise said during the pandemic, he had to go to work while sick — possibly with COVID-19 — because he didn't have paid sick leave.
"I know that missing a day of work would leave me and my three girls homeless," he said.
"I could've stayed home, got healthy, and still been able to take care of my family, and that's some choice no father should ever have to make," he continued.
If Proposition A passes, all employers in the state of Missouri would be required to provide their employees 1 hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, according to Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's website.
"We talk about America and all the liberties that it brings, but this is what America looks like out here today, folks coming out here in one common interest, one common goal," Wise said.
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