From the Chicago Sun-Times

Labor movement, religions to mark holiday together

September 4, 1998

BY ERNEST TUCKER RELIGION REPORTER

This Labor Day weekend won't merely be about barbecues and an extra day off.

To some, it will be about reforging links between labor and religious communities.

For the second year in a row, the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues has asked labor leaders as well as union carpenters, plumbers and construction workers to speak at services about work issues.

They will address more than 150 Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim worship services this weekend. Across the country, about 400 churches, synagogues and temples also will take part, an increase over the 50 involved in 1997.

``Religion and labor share a common sense of values about faith and work,'' said Monsignor John Egan, an Interfaith Committee board member. ``Labor and churches have as a primary principle the dignity of the whole person, the worker. That vision is part of God's vision.''

Egan, who will be celebrating the 11 a.m. Sunday mass at Holy Name Cathedral, will introduce John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, in the church pulpit.

``I believe John Sweeney will be able to change some hearts and minds if people will listen,'' Egan said, adding that participants ``will put flesh and blood on the work of labor unions. Congregations will see these are decent, God-fearing people interested in labor and them as church people.''

Don Turner, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, which represents more than 300 organizations and 500,000 workers, and others adopted this idea as an alternative to a parade. In doing so, they polished the church-worker bond which was forged in steel and blood.

``In the 1930s, '40s, '50s and early 1960s,'' Egan said, ``there was a close relationship between the churches and labor unions [with] churches helping the labor unions achieve their purpose of being a mouthpiece in struggles for social justice and workers rights.''

At times, those struggles were tough. Then, across America the partnership unraveled in the mid-'60s, as many activists embraced civil rights and Vietnam War protests as more pressing causes, he said. Labor unions, for their part, turned away from cooperation with clergy and faithful.

``I believe that labor realized it made a mistake,'' he said.

Now, the mutual benefits are being explored again.

``I think the entire country is dependent on labor forces; people who are working should have a voice in any management and not just be used as tools. If the people in labor do a good job [delivering their messages], there's going to be a change in attitude in people who feel labor is not doing what they should.''

1998 Labor Day Message By UAW President

4 September 1998

1998 Labor Day Message By UAW President Stephen P. Yokich

DETROIT, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a 1998 Labor Day message by UAW President Stephen P. Yokich:

Labor Day is the one day of the year when a slice of the media spotlight briefly shifts from corporate CEOs, movie stars, and pro athletes to the unsung heroes who make America work every day: the women and men who work overtime, or hold down two or even more jobs, to pay for decent homes and health care for their families, who do without that new car or vacation trip to save for college tuition for their kids or to care for an elderly parent.

The history books talk too little about workers. They focus instead on presidents, generals, and captains of industry. But it's working people who built America. We pay the taxes, fight the wars, and build communities. And we deserve a voice in the workplace and in the political process -- a little leverage to make life better for ourselves and our families.

That shouldn't be too much to ask -- especially not in a time of record-breaking corporate profits and CEO pay packages.

Yet these days some people think that America's workers should lower their sights and settle for less. Less job security, less health care, less retirement security, less of a political voice.

Corporations are rarely, if ever, criticized for trying to increase their profits at the expense of workers and communities. But when workers and their unions stand up for their jobs, we're ridiculed for not grasping the realities of the global economy. In other words, we're supposed to shut up and settle for less.

Unfortunately, the "shut up and settle for less" attitude is widespread. In factories, offices, hospitals, stores, universities, and even "liberal" non-profit organizations across the United States, employers routinely and systematically violate the legal rights of workers to organize and bargain collectively, usually with the help of high-priced union-busting lawyers and consultants.

Dr. Paul Weiler of Harvard University estimates that 10,000 American workers illegally lose their jobs each year for having supported union organizing campaigns.

Now if 10,000 American workers were illegally fired each year for, say, their religious beliefs or political views, it would be seen as a national disgrace -- and rightly so. Yet the widespread violations of American workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively -- fundamental rights in any democratic society -- go largely unnoticed.

And the workplace isn't the only place where workers are confronted by "the shut up and settle for less" attitude.

Take politics. In 1996, the new leadership of the AFL-CIO made political action a priority, and mounted an effective issues-based campaign that significantly increased union families' participation in politics. Union household voters accounted for nearly one-fourth of the total vote in 1996 and played a key role in whittling down Newt Gingrich's troops in the U.S. House. And last year, grassroots lobbying by union members and our allies in the environmental, consumer, and human rights communities stopped "fast track" in the U.S. House.

One might think that increasing citizen participation in politics would be viewed as a good thing in a democratic society. What happened, of course, is that labor's revitalized political action efforts provoked a fierce reaction from business groups and anti-union politicians. Not content just to outspend labor 11-to-1, as they did in 1996, they cooked up the cynically misnamed "paycheck protection" scheme to silence the political voice of America's workers.

But, in its major political test, "paycheck protection" bombed in the largest state in the country. California's union members talked to their co- workers about the issue, knocked on doors, worked phone banks, and turned out at the polls in unprecedented numbers. And at the end of the day, they pulled off one of the biggest come-from-behind political upsets in decades. Proposition 226 was defeated by a solid margin.

From Flint, from fast track, and from California the message is clear -- America's workers are not going to "shut up and settle for less."

We're going to continue to fight for good jobs and fair trade. We're going to continue to work for good schools, decent health care, and retirement security for every American.

And, make no mistake, we're going to fight to make the right to organize and bargain collectively a fundamental civil right for every American.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 The Auto Channel.

BACK