Religious Groups, Activists: Workers Need Job Protections

Chicago – A feeble and almost jobless economic recovery, potentially unprecedented changes in some federal overtime laws and work rules, and abusive employers are making times very tough for workers, according to the Interfaith Worker Justice, a faith-based network of 64-groups that advocate for low wage workers.

The Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), which has helped thousands of low-wage workers across the nation, will convene its leaders May 18-20 in Arlington, Va., to discuss congressional lobbying and ongoing campaigns to support workers, combat union-busting, protect immigrant rights and contest proposed Bush administration changes to laws governing the traditional 40-hour work week. Several hundred clergy, lay leaders, labor activists, seminarians and faculty are expected at the IWJ “The Prophetic Work: Religion & Labor Uniting for Worker Justice” Conference.

“In the Christian, Islamic and Jewish faith traditions, we are admonished to care for the poor. In a modern context, it means challenging policies and practices that hurt poor people and protecting the rights of workers by challenging lawmakers in the halls of Congress and walking with strikers on picket lines in the streets,” said Kim Bobo, IWJ executive director.

Bobo noted that economic uncertainty and unemployment make workers less likely to complain for fear of losing their jobs. “We have to let people know that they have basic rights and that we will fight to protect those rights,” she said. IWJ works across religious lines to educate, organize and mobilize faith communities to support improved wages, benefits and pensions – especially for low wage workers.

Conference activities will include pro-worker vigils, training workshops, worship services and lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill for an increase in the federal minimum wage as a first step to help the working poor.

IWJ will hold prayer services and send delegations to meet with managers at 15 Starbucks stores through the D.C. area asking the managers to convey concerns to company leaders about a recent national contract with Cintas, a leading uniform and industrial laundering company. Workers at Cintas are seeking union representation and wages and benefits that can raise families in dignity. IWJ supports workers’ rights to be represented by a union if they choose and their rights to decent wages and benefits. Media coverage is welcome on May 19, 4:30 p.m., at the Starbucks at 1501 Connecticut Avenue (Dupont Circle) and at Starbuck’s at 325 7th St., N.W.

The conference will convene at the Crystal City Hilton, at 2399 Jefferson Davis Highway in Arlington, Va.

Keynote sessions will feature two striking workers from a Tyson plant near Madison, Wisc., fighting company demands for a reduction in wages, health care benefits, pension, sick days and vacation days, and Cintas workers employed in the nation’s largest industrial laundry and are seeking wages and benefits that can raise families. Workshops will lift up the struggles of janitors, hotel workers, and farmworkers.

Among conference speakers and presenters will be Mr. Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer; Rabbi Robert Marx, President of the Interfaith Worker Justice; Rev. Nelson Johnson, Greensboro Pulpit Forum Faith Community Church in N. Carolina and IWJ Vice-President; Imam Mujahid Ramadan, Jamia Mosque in Nevada and leader of the Interfaith Committee; Bishop Howard Hubbard, Catholic Diocese of Albany and co-chair of the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition; Ms. Betty Campbell and Mr. Timothy Reardon of the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor; Imam Mahdi Bray, E.D., Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; and Ms. Maria Elena Durazo, co-chair of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.

The Chicago-based non-profit has 64 affiliated groups across the country, and works with religious organizations, congregations, labor unions and the federal government. It has seven worker centers that offer information about the legal rights of workers, including the right to organize. Worker center staffers educate workers about their rights in the workplace and assist workers in filing complaints with appropriate government agencies.

IWJ affiliated groups helped thousands of workers raise wages and benefits and assisted hundreds in filing complaints to collect back wages.

For more information, contact Cynthia Brooke, IWJ Communications Director, at (773) 728-8400, x40.