Labor Day Weekend Worship Resources

    Are you a clergy or layperson who wants to help your congregation make the connection between faith and work? Your Labor Day weekend worship service is an ideal time to do this. Workers Interfaith Network and our national organization Interfaith Worker Justice have prepared a number of resources to help you plan your service.
    You can view a complete list of resources here, but I want to highlight a few things for you:

• Looking for a scripture for your sermon that relates to work and justice? See our list. If you can think of another good scripture to use, tell me in the comments section.
• Need a prayer or a responsive reading? Here are a collect and a responsive prayer you can use.
• City of Memphis workers are facing a crisis as the City has cut their pay, in violation of collective bargaining agreements the City already signed. Use our bulletin insert to share about their situation, and let members of your congregation know how they can help.
• Interfaith Worker Justice has a number of prayer and responsive readings about the unemployment crisis.
• If you'll be celebrating the eucharist on Labor Day weekend, you can use our Great Thanksgiving for Labor Sunday.

   Of course, if you're in the Memphis area, we hope you'll also be inviting members of your congregation to attend the Faith and Labor Picnic on Labor Day. The Faith and Labor Picnic is the best way to celebrate the true meaning of Labor Day with 450 other people who care about justice for workers.

   Do you plan to do something special in your worship service to connect faith and work? Let us know what your plans are in the comments section.

Partner with workers seeking justice: become a sponsor or buy tickets to WIN's Faith and Labor Picnic. Buying your tickets before the Picnic gets you a 15 percent discount!

What inspires you to seek justice? Interview with Alfredo Pena

   The three of us who are privileged to work at Workers Interfaith Network all share something in common with each other and with you: a passion for seeking justice.

    As I've gotten to know my co-workers better over the years, I've been continually inspired by their stories of what brings them to this work. Then I thought, why not share these stories with you?  Today's story if from Alfredo Pena, WIN's Worker Rights Director. Maybe it will inspire you to share your story with us. Tell us in the comments section why you are an activist for workers' rights.

    Alfredo has worked at WIN since 2007, when he launched our Memphis Workers' Center project. The Workers' Center frequently partners with workers who have had their wages stolen by their employers. As Alfredo shares, he's been no stranger to wage theft in his own work life.

  The warehouse Alfredo talks about in the video is just one of the companies that stole his wages. He also worked at an oil change shop, where they made all the workers clock out when they didn't have customers. "I hoped if I went along with it, one day I would get a promotion. When I would get my paycheck and it would be very low, I would think 'I need to get more hours.'"

   Working at WIN, Alfredo has realized "this is why I was put here on this earth - to help other workers."

   It's painful to hear the many stories of explitation that workers share with him. But Alfredo is also encouraged by the workers who report back to him that they've been able to solve a problem. "Workers tell me, 'I want to thank you for listening to me. Because of what you said, I pushed forward. I didn't keep quiet. I stood up.' After a long day at work, a call like that keeps me going," Alfredo says.

  In the nearly four years since Alfredo started the Workers' Center, he has seen more workers take on leadership in the Center. Earlier this year, seven workers were elected to serve as a Steering Committee for the Center. He looks forward to the day when "the Workers' Center will be self-sustaining, from the support of our worker members."

    Share what inspired you: I would love to hear your story of where your passion for justice comes from. Tell us your story in the comments section below!

Get your advance discounted tickets for the Faith and Labor Picnic now:
https://www.chi-cash-advance.com/sforms/appeal786/contribute.aspx

Honor their struggles, take up their unfinished work

    There are several people I think of as "justice giants." They are people who gave themselves whole-heartedly to the struggle for labor justice. I think of people like T.O. Jones and Rev. Henry Logan Starks, a sanitation worker and pastor who gave leadership to the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis.

    I am awed by what these leaders accomplished. But I would be doing them a dis-service by just admiring them. That's why I try to continue their unfinished work - just as you do - with my involvement with Workers Interfaith Network.

    I invite you to honor the work these justice giants have done, and continue their work, by becoming a sponsor of WIN's 9th annual Faith and Labor Picnic. Each sponsorship level honors a different "justice giant" who has been steadfast in upholding the rights of workers.

    How does your sponsorship continue the legacy of these workers? Your sponsorship gift will allow WIN to keep campaigning with University of Memphis workers until all of them are paid a living wage. WIN will soon be launching a new campaign against wage theft, which your sponsorship will also make possible.

    You might not realize it, but $1 out of every $7 raised for WIN this year will come from the Faith and Labor Picnic. That is, if folks like you will help us reach our goal of raising $24,500 from the Picnic. The majority of funds raised come from sponsorships from individuals like you, labor unions, community groups, and businesses.

   Wondering which justice giants your sponsorship will honor?

Your $10 sponsorship honors Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers union in California.
Your $25 sponosrship honors Alzada Clark, a pioneering union and civil rights activist who organized workers throughout the Mid-South.
Your $50 sponsorship honors A. Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a leader of the March on Washington.
Your $100 sponsorship honors "Mother" Mary Jones, a travelling labor crusader who was arrested many times for her support of strikes in the early 20th century.
Your $250 sponsorship honors Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers union.
Your $500 sponsorship honors T.O. Jones, the Memphis sanitation worker who spear-headed the 1968 strike by AFSCME.
Your $1,000 sponsorship honors Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement in the mid-20th century.
Your $2,500 sponsorship honors Rev. Henry Logan Starks, an AME pastor who provided critical support to the 1968 Memphis sanitation strikers.

    If you are as inspired by these women and men as I am, please help us continue their legacy of uniting workers and people of faith into a strong voice for justice by becoming a Picnic sponsor today.

Have you "liked" Workers Interfaith Network on Facebook? When we reach 1,000 fans WIN will give away a VIP Faith and Labor Picnic prize package to one of our fans.

Mayor Wharton and City Council Dismantle Workers' Rights, Threaten Living Wage

    In case you missed it, the budget agreement passed by the Memphis City Council last week slammed the City's rank and file workers hard. 125 workers are going to be laid off. Sanitation workers will be offered buyouts, with the goal of reducing the department (which is currently contributing to the city's general fund) down to half its size. Death benefits were taken away from workers, though the City announced yesterday some of those benefits would be restored. Twelve of the thirteen paid holidays workers had were taken away.
    In their haste to pass a budget package - which is still not in writing, by the way - the Council ignored Councilman Joe Brown's assertion that workers' paid holidays were guaranteed by a City ordinance. Now that Mayor Wharton's administration has realized Councilman Brown was right, they're telling the City's rank and file workers they will have to accept a 4.6 percent salary cut.
   This salary cut comes after all the city's unions already negotiated pay and work agreements with the City this spring. In those agreements, workers went without any raises and agreed to absorb health insurance premium increases themselves. The unions upheld their responsibility to negotiate with the City in good faith, and now the City is trying to undo the agreements they've already come to with their workers.
    The agreements between the unions and the City are called memoranda of understanding. They include a procedure for dealing with situations of fiscal emergency. This procedure requires Mayor Wharton's administration to show their books to the unions to prove that a real hardship exists. So far, Mayor Wharton has been unwilling to do this. Instead his administration has urged the unions to "come to the table," without having key knowledge about what the City's financial situation really is.
    Furthermore, the Mayor's proposed 4.6 percent salary cut endangers the living wage resolution that the City Council passed in 2006, in which permanent City workers are to be paid at least $10 an hour. In 2007, the City Council passed another resolution promising temporary City workers at least $12 an hour because they do not receive any kinds of benefits. There are very likely workers being paid right at $10 and $12 an hour right now, and the pay cuts would violate the promise to pay a living wage.
     It's time for the citizens of Memphis to call on Mayor Wharton and City Council members to act in good faith with their workers.
    Here's how you can help:

• Call Mayor Wharton's office at (901) 576-6000 and the City Council office at 576-6786. Tell them a pay cut for the city's rank and file workers is unacceptable. Urge the City to neogiate in good faith with workers' unions.
• Come to the City Council meeting this Tuesday, July 5th at 3:30 p.m.

    No matter what happens in the next couple of weeks with the budget, this attack on the hard-working people who keep our city running is not over. We're working on long-term plans to address this attack, so keep your eyes open for more news from us soon.

   Special thanks to Brad Watkins of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center and Chad Johnson at AFSCME Local 1733 for their monitoring and reporting on all the budget developments with the City Council. I am drawing heavily on their work in this post.
 
Want to take action with workers seeking justice  and keep up to date on what's happening with City workers? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

University of Memphis Raise Announcement: First Step to a Living Wage

    I'm excited to announce our first victory in the living wage campaign at the University of Memphis! On Thursday, the University of Memphis, along with other Tennessee Board of Regents, announced salary increases for fiscal year 2012. The proposed raises are 3 percent, or a minimum of $750 per full-time worker. Part-time workers will get raises in proportion to the hours they work. The raises must still be approved by the full Board of Regents.


U. of M. workers, students, and WIN members made this victory possible through many actions, including delivering 1,000 living wage petitions to President Raines' office.

     This is the first raise that higher education workers have received in four years, and it wouldn't have happened without the outcry from members of Workers Interfaith Network, United Campus Workers, and the Progressive Student Alliance. Thank you to everyone who rallied, sent emails, participated in vigils, and made calls to the University!

    You can be especially encouraged by the Board of Regents' decision to include flat dollar minimum raise of $750. About 2,500 workers at Board of Regents schools will be affected by the flat dollar raise. The United Campus Workers have been pushing this approach for years because it can move workers up to a living wage much faster than a percentage pay raise would. Rest assured, it is the living wage campaign carried out by workers, community members, and students that convinced the Board of Regents to use this approach.

    Of course, the University of Memphis has many more steps to take to bring all its workers up to a living wage. We look forward to hearing from President Raines about what the University's concrete plan and timelines are for implementing a living wage on campus.

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

Practicing What We Preach: Why WIN Employees Have a Union

by Rev. Rebekah Gienapp, executive director   
    When workers decide to form unions, often their employers go on the rampage. Holding lengthy meetings with workers to talk about the evils of unions, threatening to close the business, and illegally firing union supporters are all too common. But here at Workers Interfaith Network, I welcomed the opportunity for our employees to form a union, even though I am the "manager" around here.

WIN employees celebrate the signing of our first union contract.

   Two weeks ago, WIN signed a union contract with the St. Louis Newspaper Guild, Local 36047 of the Communication Workers of America. Why do we see this as a good thing for our organization and for our employees? Here's a few reasons:

• Our employees deserve to have a voice in decisions made around here. This includes decisions about how their work should be done. A union contract provides a framework for that kind of collaborative decision-making.
• It's not healthy for one person in an organization to have all the power. Everyone has biases, including me. Having a set process for disciplining employees helps limit that bias. And, if an employee, feels like I have made an unfair decision that doesn't follow our union contract, we have a way to work out that dispute.
• The contract makes clear to our employees our commitment to pay living wages and provide health and retirement benefits. These are the things we advocate for every day for workers throughout Memphis. We want to provide the same kind of good jobs we advocate for here at WIN. We were already paying living wages and providing benefits before the contract was signed. But now we can't arbitrarily change those things without negotiating with our employees.
• We're now a formal part of the labor movement, which has done so much for all workers - not just union members. We can thank unions for so many things - the minimum wage, the 8 hour work day, the end of child labor, and much more. Our employees' union membership is a small way to strenghten this important movement.
• Union membership gives WIN access to quality health care and retirement plans at a reasonable cost. Because we're now part of national plans through the Communication Workers, our health care premiums are much lower than they would be otherwise.

    Too many employers see any gain for their workers as a loss for their organization or business. Here at WIN, we see things differently. Treating our employees the way we want all workers to be treated brings integrity to our work. It helps create an atmosphere of loyalty, where WIN employees stick around for the long haul to organize for justice. And as a supervisor, the presence of a union reminds me to check my own actions with employees for fairness. Because I don't know about you, but I always find room for improvement in myself!

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

I want to answer your questions - what are they?

      If you clicked on WIN's "Frequently Asked Questions" page, what would you want to be sure you could find out?

    Thanks to the generosity of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis - and the matching gifts that you made - WIN will soon have a new website. Because many people first learn about WIN through the website, I want to be sure we answer their most pressing questions about our work. But to do that, I need your help figuring out what questions to answer.
   You - or someone you've talked to about WIN - might have questions about:

• the specific issues we address, like wage theft, living wages, or the right to organize a union. For example, would you want to know how much a living wage is in Memphis right now?
• what rights you have as a worker. Is there something going on at your workplace that seems fishy? What is it?
• how we use your donations.
• whether we do more harm that good. You (or other people you've talked to about WIN) might have skeptical questions about us. For example, doesn't workers having a union just make it more likely the company will have to close down because it's so expensive?
• something I haven't thought of at all. Just tell me what it is!

    I really want this Frequently Asked Questions page to be useful. To be useful, I need to know your honest questions - or the ones other people have asked you. This includes the questions that you didn't want to say out loud because you thought they sounded too negative. After all, if people have those kinds of questions, I sure want to answer them.
    So please, take a moment to jot down the question(s) that pop into your head when you hear the name Workers Interfaith Network. You can leave your questions in the comments below, or on WIN's Facebook page. Thanks in advance for your help. I look forward to revealing the new website to you this summer!

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm