History of the Project:

Seventy years ago it was not uncommon to see priests at the forefront of all labor gains. Labor schools were run in parish halls; priests were walking the picket lines with workers; union members wore with pride their "colors" to church. Now much of the “professionalized” ministry identifies more clearly with the ownership class than the working class. The Religious Perspectives on Work project is an attempt to ensure that seminarians, as part of their seminary curricula, will interact with worker justice issues, especially labor justice issues that many of their future parishioners and community members will face. The project will support those pastors and future religious leaders who want to be labor chaplains, ministers, and religious leaders by supporting the workers in their congregations and communities who want to see justice and fairness in their workplace.

Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) has an established track record of equipping and preparing future religious leaders for engagement on worker justice issues. As IWJ was forming, its leadership recognized a generational shift beginning to take place. The rich experience of the elders of the movement needed to be passed on; the torch needed to be carried by some emerging religious leaders. And these young people needed training and exposure to worker issues.

In 2000, IWJ partnered with the AFL-CIO to create Seminary Summer, a 10-week internship program for future religious leaders. These students work in unions; learn about worker justice campaigns and the labor movement; and actively involve local clergy with workers struggling for living wages, benefits, and respect in their workplace. Within the first five years, more than 115 students have completed this internship.

Consistently these students return with the feedback that they need more coursework in the area of worker and economic justice. Since mid-2003 IWJ has gathered resources for faculty and students to enhance their understanding about worker justice issues.

In 2003 and 2004, local interfaith committees affiliated with IWJ, funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, assembled planning groups in Boston, Berkeley, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, and Washington D.C. With key religious scholars from around the country, these groups explored ways to further engage faculty, students, and institutions in discussing, teaching about, and acting upon issues of worker justice from a religious perspective. More than 120 professors from Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities representing 40 religious teaching institutions confirmed the need for curricula, courses, internships, writings, and research.

Below are some of the findings of these planning groups:

• Little has being written about how labor and religious communities can work together to improve conditions for workers. The number of religious and labor groups working together has increased greatly in recent years, in large part due to the efforts of IWJ. Still, little is written thus far that helps prepare clergy to engage workers or to connect with labor groups.
• This field of study is generating great interest, even though few courses are being taught. Several professors have been so interested in understanding the current situation confronting workers that they have engaged other disciplines to deepen their understanding of economics, capitalism, and globalization to incorporate these issues in their courses and writings. Professors repeatedly said they want to learn more about economics from the perspectives of marginalized, vulnerable, and poor people, as well as the impact of the economy on their lives and families.
• Related social justice courses are attractive to students. Joan Martin, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Boston, taught a course called “Social Movements and Social Theory: Christians as Social Change Agents.” Thirty-five students enrolled (an impressive number for an elective class).
• Faculty members want assistance in expanding their course offerings. Faculty members have consistently expressed the desire for sample curricula, reading lists, teaching resources, ideas for experiential education, and academic conferences. Often faculty members believe they are ill-equipped to address adequately economic trends, post-industrial capitalism, and globalization.
• Professors and students want more hands-on experience in worker justice issues. They want to get out of the classroom and meet workers, learn about their lives, understand the realities and hardships low-wage workers face. In fact, increasingly the effectiveness of classroom education is challenged if it doesn’t “keep it real.” A few professors have suggested having Seminary Summer for faculty. They would like to experience worker struggles, as well as to research and write about religion and labor in order to incorporate in their classroom and their lives.

There is a hunger from professors and students across the country to learn more about worker justice, capitalism, economics from a religious perspective, and globalization. Still faith communities by-and-large have not discerned effective ways to address these issues.

Here are some of the courses that emerged:

• Contemporary Issues in Christian Social Ethics: Ethics of Vocation and Work in Church and Society, Dr. Joan Martin, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Beyond Borders: Bay Area Immigrant Intensive, Maureen Duignan and Andrew Schwiebert, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California (20 students from the Graduate Theological Union to focus on workers’ issues).
• Community Organizing, Kim Bobo, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado (40 students).
• Faith, Labor, and Economic Life, Rev. Mark Wendorf, Richard Perry, Ph.D., Rev. Kazi Joshua, and Ms. Kim Bobo, Association for Chicago Theological Schools, Chicago, Illinois (26 students from 5 seminaries).
  

For more information. . .
If you would like more information or want to get involved in this project, please contact Joy Heine, Project Director, Religious Perspectives on Work, Interfaith Worker Justice, 1020 West Bryn Mawr, 4th Floor, Chicago, IL 60660, or (773) 728-8400 ext. 33.