U.S. Social Forum: Union-Faith Group Partnership Must Be Two-Way Street

Helen Gonzales on the AFL-CIO staff is attending the U.S. Social Forum June 22–26 in Detroit. She reports from a workshop on the importance of faith, labor and community alliances.

The global economic crisis has created a unique opportunity for the faith community and the union movement to work together to change the culture of greed and create a more just society, panelists said at a U.S. Social Forum workshop on faith, labor and community alliances on Thursday.

Saying the core principle of all major faiths is caring for our neighbor, Kim Bobo, director of Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), told the more than 60 people in the workshop that principle can be applied to nearly every struggle workers face. 

Several speakers also emphasized that partnerships between faith groups and unions must be a two-way street. Often, they said, both sides talk about solidarity and mutual support, until the particular issue is settled, and then the sides go their separate ways.

Now, more than ever, solving the problems we face must be a combined effort, UAW President Bob King said. He added that he believes unions have not stayed as active in their communities as they should during good times and now they are coming to the communities for help when they are losing wages, benefits and health care. Unions should reach out to faith and community groups at all times to build a new social movement, he said.

We need to fight for all members of society, not just for union members.

Before we can build that movement, unions must educate people about what is really happening in our economy and who is at fault. Too many people believe unions and immigrant workers are the problem, said the Rev. Charles Williams, a member of AFSCME District Council 25 and a Detroit minister.

Working together doesn’t mean just attending press conferences or going to events together. We must be strategic about the investments we make. We need reciprocal relationships.

Baldemar Velásquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), praised the solidarity of religious and community groups in the battle to gain justice for North Carolina tobacco workers who are employed by suppliers to tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds. He said FLOC will soon announce a national effort to have customers withdraw their money from JPMorgan Chase, which has invested $498 million in Reynolds’ parent Reynolds American.

Bobo listed many opportunities where strong alliances among community, faith and labor can make a difference. For example, IWJ is working to stop wage theft among mostly immigrant low-wage workers. The nation’s economy suffers when millions of workers are denied their just pay, Bobo said. It is also a moral issue, she added, since every major faith group has some variation of the commandment that “Thou shalt not steal.”

We also need to come together to fight for real immigration reform, Bobo said. IWJ plans to converge in large numbers in Arizona next month when the state’s new anti-immigrant law goes into effect and Bobo invited all activists to join them in protests. 

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