‘Occupy’ movement makes Jefferson City appearance

Protesters from all parts of central Missouri participate in a Where Are The Jobs/Occupy the Capitol rally on the steps of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City on Saturday. Photo by Kris Wilson.

By Angie Hutschrieder

Sunday, October 30, 2011

“We just want to have our voice heard, and it is time that we realize the ‘trickle down effect’ and deregulation do not work — they have not worked,” Betty Blakely said as she stood on the front steps of the Missouri Capitol building holding a sign that read “Stop the War Against American Workers.”

Near her, Jeff Reed, also of Moberly, stood with a bright yellow sign that, in part, read “Unemployed. And Fed Up.” Blakely and Reed were two of about 30 “occupy” movement supporters who gathered Saturday on the front steps of the Capitol in Jefferson City.

Read additional details in our newspaper or e-Edition. Newspaper subscribers: Click on an e-Edition article and log in using your current account information at no extra charge. For e-edition help, e-mail circ@newstribune.com. Click here to purchase the full version of archived articles.

The two said many times they think the movement is misrepresented in the media.

More like this story

wyriontair 1 year, 6 months ago

If they are truly wanting to "stop the war against Americanworkers" I would suggest they vote for Missouri to be a "RIGHT TO WORK" state. It is Unions that are hurting our country. Union members are used over and over again by politicians in the Democratic party.

3blindmice 1 year, 6 months ago

how could they be hurting the united states? less than 13% of american workers belong to a union. I think it has more to do with corporate greed than unions. unions fight for a living wage. a living wage, not crazy wage like ceo's get paid. you should visit a right to work state. the one just south in arkansas is a mess. full time jobs started disappearing as well as benefits shortly after becoming a right to work state. right to work should be called right to greed.

tonto 1 year, 6 months ago

GM and Chrysler made big money paying those high union wages back when they could sell plenty of big SUV's and half-ton pickup trucks. A suddenly collapsed US market drove GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Poorly designed, overpriced cars drove GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. By the time GM was building decent cars again, it was too late. Now they have a fresh start.

asb 1 year, 6 months ago

Unions are good, if you work for a living, join one and make more.

RobHunterJohnson 1 year, 6 months ago

Unions are good for America and Missouri. The mind set that a couple of people have expressed here on this page are sad? The odds are they have theirs and all they want is more! Having been employed in RIGHT TO WORK STATES, I have found that the over all wages for any job has been always LESS! The only one who benefits once again is the rich employer! Vickie Hartzler took $775,000 in farm subsidy, and she is going to fix this mess? Caleb Jones came out against the biggest employer in Missouri, (Boeing) I sure would like to see who is donating to his coffer. Wyriontair, and Graceful are lost, and would run blindly to the likes of Rep Ryan (WI), ( who wishes to end Medicare and Social Security, because the Koch brothers are using him like a puppet) and Cain and his 9 9 9 plan? That will make it up on the backs of the small guy, and the working class Tax Payer. I hope people WAKE UP! ROB

NoMoBigBro 1 year, 6 months ago

At one point in time Unions were a very important entity to stop the horrid conditions that workers faced. I would think that LaTortuga would be fine without unions today, as he seems to always tow the line that the great all powerful Government is here to take care of the people all the time and provide all we need. But, that does hold some truth to it. We now have minimum wage laws, OSHA, Div. of Worker's Compensation, FMLA, EEO, and on and on. But that's not good enough so we still need unions too? Unions that come in and say "we don't have any control, we leave that all up to you. We just help you negotiate." Negotiate? Really? Like when they negotiate for a raise by giving away health benefits and vacation? Wow, thanks a bunch! And don't forget to keep up on your union dues! You know...the dues for the union having no control...only helping negotiate.

So...all these government laws and regulations that the unions helped bring about and it's still not good enough for people? And those are probably some of the same ones that holler about "corporate greed". So I guess their point is that corporate greed is bad, but employee greed is good. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe in any way that there are some corporations out there that just don't get it and it's all about money over people. But, as someone else said about unions...there are bad aspects about SOME corporations, but it doesn't make them all bad. If you want to stagnate the growth of a company and milk ot for all the employees can get out of it, by all means go union. Some corporations actually take the growth and increased revenue and add jobs to the economy. That actually sounds like a good thing in today's economy.

You do realize that 'trickle down economics' was from the Reagan era right? A conservative Republican.

And what are they trying to propose anyway? Trickle UP economics? I wanna hear that one!

Please review our Policies and Procedures before registering or commenting

Or login with:

OpenID

News Tribune