Preserve Middle Class America needs your help to raise $1 million to fight anti-union campaign

By ED FINKELSTEIN

Publisher

Preserve Middle Class America has launched a $1 million fundraising effort for a media campaign to counteract the hateful anti-union and anti-working family political ads currently airing on Missouri radio and television stations.

Missouri GOP right-wing mega-donor David Humphreys, CEO of TAMKO Building Products of Joplin, is spending millions of his own dollars to attack both the pro-labor Republicans who helped sustain Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of right-to- work and hard working-middle class union members who support Chris Koster for governor.

To counteract this deceitful TV and radio onslaught, Preserve Middle Class America (PMCA) – the grassroots coalition of citizens and organizations advocating for better wages, working conditions and employment opportunities for middle class families – is seeking to raise $1 million to deliver its own TV and radio campaign to inform and remind the public what unions do for workers, working families, the economy and their communities.

This is not the first time PMCA has been in the forefront of the fight against Humphreys’ anti-worker campaign. In the right-to- work fight, their media campaign of radio and TV ads throughout Missouri was an effective component to the grassroots field work and bipartisan advocacy against this, and other anti-worker laws the Republican-controlled legislature was unable to pass.

David Cook, president of UFCW Local 655, who is serving as president of Preserve Middle Class America, Inc., has penned a letter to unions and progressive organizations throughout Missouri urging unions, corporations and individuals to contribute to this critical media campaign.

“Humphreys has contributed millions of dollars in direct and indirect contributions against pro-Labor Democratic and Republican candidates in Missouri and for television, cable and radio ads advertising how to decertify union contracts,” Cook writes in his letter. “These attacks threaten to undo the cumulative effect of our collective hard work.”

That hard work includes defeating right-to- work last year, and paycheck deception this year through the combined efforts of union volunteers, bipartisanship and paid media.

Union-hater Humphreys has responded with a gloves-off attack going after representatives who helped defeat those measures with negative billboards, radio and print ads, as wells as attacking the strength of a unified membership that makes it possible for unions to do their work.

“This onslaught must be answered with a strong, clear message about how we fight for the middle class every single day,” Cook says. “This fight cannot be won by a handful of organizations; it requires a united front from every single (progressive) organization in this state in order to achieve the funding levels necessary to compete with billionaires flooding our airwaves with attacks.”

Preserve Middle Class America, Inc., is an IRS-approved not-for- profit organization and can legally accept contributions from unions, individuals and corporations.

“One hundred percent of the money raised will be spent directly on paid media to drive home a message that will counteract Humphreys’ deceitful campaign that’s now flooding Missouri’s airwaves,” Cook said.

TO CONTRIBUTE

If you’d like to contribute to the effort to preserve Missouri’s middle class, working conditions and your paycheck, contributions in any amount are welcomed. Checks or money orders should be made payable to “Preserve Middle Class America, Inc.” and sent to:

Preserve Middle Class America Inc., 4501 Emanuel Cleaver II Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64130. Federal ID Number: 80-0734319.