Louisiana’s Religious Community: We Need Employee Free Choice Now

by Seth Michaels, Sep 4, 2009

The Rev. Dr. Climon Smith spoke out yesterday in New Orleans in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

In an open letter to U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, 118 Louisiana ministers and religious leaders are demanding the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to protect dignity and justice for all workers.

Hailing from across the state and representing a broad spectrum of faiths, the coalition of religious leaders announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act in a press conference in New Orleans yesterday. They presented their open letter and asked their senators to recognize that the vital freedom of workers to form unions and bargain is under threat.

The letter reads, in part:

Whenever people stand together in mutual commitment and for the common purpose of  promoting and protecting their most essential dignity—a dignity that issues directly from God—then we as people of faith and good conscience have a moral responsibility to stand with them. We have a responsibility to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We make this appeal to the conscience of every Member of Congress.

The Employee Free Choice Act presents us with an opportunity to pass legislation that is at once economically and morally efficacious for the people of our nation and our economy. Even as unions serve as vehicles by which poor workers lift themselves from poverty and into the middle class, the increased purchasing power of union members provides an effective and consistent stimulus for the general economy. When workers form unions, they have an opportunity to empower themselves and provide security for their families. They have a meaningful voice on the job and participate in a collaborative effort with their employers to fashion mutually beneficial working conditions.

You can read the entire letter here.

The efforts of faith leaders and congregations have been a critical part of the coalition supporting Employee Free Choice. This weekend, more than 1,000 congregations across the country will celebrate and honor workers.

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