Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network Labor Sunday Message (Long)

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

With apologies to Buffalo Springfield, something's happening here. And it is

very clear what that something is, if one cares to see. There is a new

democracy movement that is growing worldwide. From Geneva to Bangalore to

Seattle, Philadelphia, Prague, Genoa and Cochabamba there is a new level of

activism that is rejecting the growing concentration of corporate power.

The ravages of corporate rule are bringing people together across previously

unbreached boundaries. Labor organizations and environmentalists are no

longer accepting the false dichotomy of jobs versus the environment. Both

sides have begun to recognize that by working together they can create

innovative solutions that keep our air and water clean while providing decent

jobs at livable wages. Likewise, women, racial and ethnic minorities,

indigenous peoples, human rights activists, religious people, farmers, are

finding their commonality in the face of the repressive anti-democratic

forces of global corporatism. Millions of people are joining this movement,

joined by a vision of a future that is guarantees the rights of all human

beings and is respectful of nature.

If this new pro-democracy movement is to succeed, it will need the active

involvement of two institutions that have often been on the wrong side of

liberation struggles-organized religion and organized labor. As someone who

has been intimately involved in both, I have grieved as unions and the church

have far too frequently worked to thwart democracy. But I can also point to

that faithful remnant, the prophets in our midst, who keep calling us back to

fulfill the promise of a just society that is the basis of those

institutions. Those prophetic voices--people like Mother Jones, Cesar

Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day-give us hope that the union

movement and our churches, temples, synagogues and mosques will lead the way

in creating that just society.

In previous Labor Sunday addresses, I have tried to paint a picture of the

struggle of workers throughout history. I have tried to appeal to our

emotions, to help us empathize with the plight of people around the world. I

have told you stories of unjust firings, of towns devastated by plant

closings, of environmental catastrophes both here in Pennsylvania and in

other places. I have provided statistics of increased poverty, the rise in

domestic violence, suicide and layoffs. I'm sure that your own observations

and reading have verified those stories and statistics.

So instead of spending my time this morning appealing to your emotions, I'm

going to take my time to tell you what you can do to bring about the justice

envisioned in our religious traditions and embodied in the labor movement.

The following ten suggestions come from the National Interfaith Committee for

Worker Justice.

1) Come "out of the closet" in your own faith community. Let people know if

you are a union member or a union leader. Many of us are afraid to talk about

our union affiliations. Some of us are embarrassed to admit that we are

workers, as if there is something humiliating about manual labor. Dr. King

said, "If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even

as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote

poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and

earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job

well. "

There is dignity in all work, and there is even more dignity in standing up

for workers' rights by being active in a union.

2) Acquaint yourself with your faith body's teachings on the dignity of

labor and the role of labor unions in society so you are equipped to talk

with people in your congregation. Mother Jones' advice is "Sit down and

read. Educate yourself for the coming conflicts."

The National Interfaith Committee has great resources, as do most

denominational offices. The AFL-CIO also has online and printed materials

for you to understand what workers are facing today.

3) Join the organizations that are working for economic justice such as the

National Interfaith Committee and, to plug my own organization, the

Pennsylvania Consumer Action Network.

4) Include "Worker Rights Inserts" in your congregation's bulletins. Jointly

produced by the National Interfaith Committee and the U.S. Department of

Labor, this series of six bulletin inserts helps workers understand their

rights and how to file complaints. Available in English, Spanish and six

other languages.

5) Pray for low-wage workers, especially farmworkers who harvest and process

our food, childcare workers who nurture our youth and nursing home workers

who care for our sick and elderly family members.

6) Offer to speak in your congregation (during or after service, depending

on what's appropriate) about the shared values between religion and labor.

Outside speakers can be informative and inspirational, but nothing touches

people as much as hearing from people they already know and care about.

7) Invite your congregation's religious leaders to join you in labor support

actions throughout the year. Very few religious leaders have been at a labor

rally or joined a picket line. Doing so will help them understand the issues

and gain a greater appreciation for unions. This congregation is fortunate

to have John Morgan as its pastor. John understands the issues and has been

on the front lines with labor. In fact, this afternoon at 3:00 John will be

leading an Interfaith Service at 3:00 at the workers' Memorial, 6th and Canal

Streets here in Reading. I hope you will all join us there.

8) Talk with local union organizers. Find out how they are building

partnerships with the religious community in organizing drives and contract

campaigns. Offer to help make contacts with leaders in your congregation or

denomination.

9) Invite someone from the Department of Labor to talk with your

congregation about ways to partner to reach out to workers about their rights

in the workplace. Several cities across the country are developing

partnerships that train leaders in congregations on workers' rights and how

to assist workers in filing complaints about illegal activities.

10) Establish an Employment Ministry in your congregation that assists

members of the congregation to find jobs and practice their faith and values

in the workplace. Consider how your congregation is as an employer. Does the

janitor or church secretary receive a living wage and family benefits? If

not, can you work with the budget committee to move toward more just wages

and benefits?

These are all great ideas, but I think that the National Interfaith Committee

left out a very important action that we can take. That is the need to get

involved in the political and legislative agenda for protecting workers.

Every day the rights of workers are being eroded. And when workers' rights

are harmed, it means the dilution of our democracy. We need to take strong

stands on the issues before Congress and the General assembly in

Pennsylvania. Here are some of the most important issues facing labor today.

1) In 1886, in one of the most its outrageous decisions, the United States

Supreme Court gave corporations equal protection under the 14th amendment to

the Constitution. This decision, known as Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific

Railroad, came at a time when women, Native Americans, and most African

Americans didn't have the right to vote. The 14th Amendment was written to

provide for equal protection of freed slaves. But, incredibly, the 14th

Amendment has been used more for the protection of corporations than the

protection of freed slaves and other minority human beings. This perversion

has to stop.

There is a growing movement to revoke corporate charters and revise corporate

law to hold individuals civilly and criminally responsible for their actions.

This is neither a new nor a radical concept. The idea of revoking corporate

charters for corporate wrongdoing is based on the original understanding of

corporate law. As originally envisioned, corporations were to be organized

for limited purposes and were not meant to protect individuals form civil or

criminal penalties. If a corporation was responsible for the deaths of

people, then all responsible parties within of that corporation could be held

liable. This concept of corporations is enshrined in many state

constitutions, including Pennsylvania's. We need to enforce this

constitutional provision and enact laws which mandate the revocation of

corporations which do not act in the common good.

2) Amend the Constitution to include a Right to Free Association . There is

no provision in either the Pennsylvania or the United States Constitution

that guarantees the right of free association. We need to amend both to

bring us into compliance with international law on this matter. The words of

the 1948 Convention Concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the

Right to Organize would be a great guideline for these amendments.

"Workers' and employers' organizations shall have the right to draw up their

constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives in full freedom, to

organize their administration and activities and to formulate their programs.

The public authorities shall refrain from any interference which would

restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof. Workers' and

employers' organizations shall not be liable to be dissolved or suspended by

administrative authority. Workers' and employers' organizations shall have

the right to establish and join federations and confederations and any such

organization, federation or confederation shall have the right to affiliate

with international organizations of workers and employers."

3) Repeal Taft-Hartley. The Taft-Hartley Act, known by unions as the "Slave

Labor Act," was passed in 1947 to severely limit the rights of workers to

organize. The Taft-Hartley Act has been cited by the International Labor

organization as a severe impediment to workers' rights. Among its many

anti-worker provisions are making sympathy strikes and secondary boycotts

illegal, allowing the president to force strikers back to work, allowing

state legislatures to ban union shops, allowing only employers the right to

speak freely in union elections. This law must be repealed and replaced with

a bill which guarantees the right of free association by workers.

4) Ratify the 1948 "Convention concerning Freedom of Association and

Protection of the Right to Organize" cited above. This right to organize is

almost universally accepted. Only the United States and a handful of

undemocratic nations have not ratified it. So far it has been passed by 134

nations. It is time for the United States to join this list.

5) Unjust firings law. Workers today can be fired for any reason. It

doesn't matter how good a job he or she has done. A worker can be fired for

belonging to the wrong political party, for associating with the wrong people

outside of work, for being gay. Unless someone is protected by a union, a

worker can be fired for virtually any reason. This can be rectified by an

unjust firings law.

6) Stop the sale of public wealth to corporations. Commonly known as

privatization, the transfer of public wealth into private hands has to stop.

There are some things that just do not belong in the realm of private

enterprise. Does anyone really think that corporations should control our

water, our education, our health? When we turn public services over to

corporate ownership we also give them control over our lives.

7) Living Wage. We need a minimum wage that will allow a family to survive.

Current proposals for a minimum wage will bring it up to $6.50-7.00 an hour.

Studies have shown that a wage of around $11.00 is necessary to support a

family in Pennsylvania. We need to pass a living wage immediately, and tie

it to inflation. Politicians play games with the minimum wage by passing a

bill that they know will be inadequate. This gives them the ability to bring

the issue up every two or three years and tout their support of a higher

minimum wage. If they really cared about assuring decent wages they would

pass 1) a living wage that is 2) tied to inflation. This would guarantee

sufficient incomes for all workers for years to come.

8) Pennsylvania needs to protect the prevailing wage. "Prevailing wage"

means that contractors hired by the state, must pay its employees what is

prevalent in the marketplace. That means a fair wage is guaranteed for all

people working on taxpayer money. Contractors bidding for projects know that

they must pay predetermined wages for their employees or they cannot be

awarded state contracts. Prevailing wage gives the contracted workers a fair

wage and prevents the undermining of a community's wage structure by

taxpayer-supported projects.

9) Protection and expansion of Project Labor Agreements. Project Labor

Agreements, or PLAs, are binding agreements between contractors and specific

projects being built with taxpayer money. The agreement says that all

employees on the project will either be union employees or will be paid union

wages. PLAs discourage companies from fighting union organizing since they

will have to pay union wages if they want these very lucrative contracts. It

discourages companies from underbidding their competitors on the backs of

workers. And it encourages workers to form unions because they see how much

more unionized workers make.

10) All state contracts must require "neutrality agreements." As a condition

of signing a contract with the state all providers must agree to not fight

union organizing drives in their workforces. A neutrality agreement allows

the workers to decide among themselves whether or not they want to form a

union, free of employer coercion. The decision to organize a union should

be the workers' alone, with no outside coercion. Neutrality agreements

recognize this basic principle, and put it into the form of a contract.

That's my list of some of the current labor issues. If we really want to

support workers we need to do more than just provide lip service once a year

at Labor Day. We need to take up labor's struggle and labor's issues-year

round. We need to take some risks and get up from the comfort of the four

walls of our sanctuary.

Samuel Gompers, former President of the AFL, identified Labor's agenda when

he said, "We want more schoolhouses and less jails, more books and less

orificenals, more learning and less vice, more constant work and less crime,

more leisure and less greed, more justice and less revenge."

That is Labor's agenda today as well. And if we are to be the people we

claim to be it must be our agenda as well.

There's something happening here. Let's make sure this time we're part of it.

Michael Morrill

Delivered at First Unitarian Universalist Church, Reading, 9/2/01

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