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All Faith Traditions Teach That Workers Should Be Treated With Respect |
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Led by Interfaith Worker Justice, religious organizations and faith groups have been working hard for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
A dozen faith groups and 50 faith leaders came together March 9 at the Methodist House on Capitol Hill to reaffirm their support for the Employee Free Choice Act and to discuss the theological foundation of that support from Judaism, Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity.
The Rev. Adam Taylor of Sojourners quoted liberally from both the Old and New Testaments, including Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 22 and St. Luke, to make the point that God commands the faithful to fight poverty and inequality. He went on to say that in a society and economy as unequal as ours, organizing unions and restoring collective bargaining is one of the most important ways to fight poverty and inequality.
Citing the Papal Novarum issued 150 years ago, Dr. Joseph McCartin said that Catholic teaching has long held that forming unions and protecting workers’ rights are essential to democracy and to the work of Catholicism in the public arena. McCartin, a History professor at Georgetown University, is a founding member of Catholic Scholars for Workers Rights, which is circulating a statement supporting the Employee Free Choice Act at Catholic colleges and universities.
Renaye Manley of Interfaith Worker Justice moderated the meeting. IWJ’s founder, Kim Bobo, reminded all that:
All faith traditions teach that workers should be treated with respect and dignity and paid fairly. unions serve vital roles in ensuring workers’ just treatment and pay, which is why Interfaith Worker Justice supports the Employee Free Choice Act. In this time of economic crisis, workers need a voice in the future of their companies that comes through collective bargaining.
The Rev. Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and an ordained Pentecostal minister, said although farm workers are not covered by federal labor law, he helped unionize 7,000 farm workers in North Carolina and thousands more in Ohio and across the Midwest using majority signup.
Today, the Rev. Jim Wallis, America’s best known Evangelical preacher, author and founder of Sojourners, will testify for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act before the U.S. Senate Labor Committee. Following that hearing, the Employee Free Choice Act will be formally introduced in the Congress by Senators Edward Kennedy and Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.
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WHEN WILL LABOR LEADERS ADMIT THEIR MISTAKE ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION? I STAND WITH SAM GOMPERS AND CAESAR CHAVEZ IN SAYING IT HURTS PRESENT AN FUTURE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS .I BELIEVE OUR LEADERS HAVE BETRAYED US.STAND WITH ME ALL BLACK,LATINO,WHITE,ASIAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN CITIZENS AND ASK OUR UNION LEADERS IF THEY ARE ADVOCATING FOR US OR REPLACING US.YOUR ETHNIC BACKGROUND IS AMERICAN CONTACT ME AT strongbuck2003@yahoo.com,let’s organize them out of a job
It was Pope John Paul backing the unions in Poland that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.
Strongly agree with what you say. Yes, we have to change the views on illegal immigration. Live in Albuquerque, NM. Worked as a nurse, night shift in an Emergency Dept. in a poor section of town. We saw lots of people of all origins. These are people trying to make a better life for their families. Most of us have ancestors who came here from elsewhere. How soon we forget!! We need to educate all Americans about this fact. Have relatives who feel differently from me on this issue