dinner with workers and religious leaders is building toward public prayer vigil action

I have had the honor this summer of working at a placement that on some levels may seem a bit dreamy: a labor union that has a staff person devoted to mobilizing community religious support for the workers at Resurrection Hospitals in Chicago who are trying to form their union. In other words, this is a union that has put a high value on the power of the voice of religous leaders-- to be of service to winning justice for workers. This AFSCME Local 31 has been an extraordinary place to jump in, to learn, to grow, and to contribute the strengths that I may bring, to their efforts already underway in harnessing the support of concerned people of faith- to help workers form a union, in support of improving their standard of living and working. I couldn't have imagined being more welcomed, resourced, supported, and nurtured in a summer internship, in a new 'culture'. I have had the pleasure of working alongside another intern, also placed here at AFSCME for the summer, who is from the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. It has added a nice element of daily interfaith collaboration, as we learn together about each other's spheres... she as a rabbinical student preparing to be a cantor, and me in my Protestant United Church of Christ (UCC) circles, as I preparation for ordination to be a local parish minister in the UCC.

I want to offer one example of the ways that this site showed me that they were invested in a positive learning experience for their interns. They had stated, before I even got here, that they are invested in fostering future connections between faith leaders and labor movements- and they hoped that my internship might help plant seeds that will help more of us become allies over the long haul. So I was not entirely surprised, although I was wholly impressed, that my supervisor laid out a specific project for this summer, that she imagined would be 'do-able', from start (including planning, and mapping it out), to finish (involving executing it, and then evaluating it,) all within the (what is passing so quickly!) few weeks that we were interning.

Since many of you-- Seminary Summer and IWJ interns, plus IWJ staff, and IWJ national conference attenders, were the ones who helped launch a great start to our summer at AFSCME with your participation in the downtown Chicago action on June 19, 2007 at the Catholic Health Association (CHA) meeting, I am happy to give you an update on what has been happening since then. Even with hundreds of us picketing outside the CHA meeting, we have not received a response from Sr. Carol Keehan of the CHA, and so we have continued to support workers with next steps. We are building toward two exciting events coming up as part of a particular campaign addressing the issues of low wage workers at the nine different Resurrection Hospitals in what has now become a corporatized chain in Chicago- the second largest in the city. While the hospital system has profited, the workers in the food service, laundry, and environmental services are only making $9 per hour, on which to raise their families.

I recently went on a home visit with one of the AFSCME organizers and met Leon, a part time food service worker, who is struggling with diabetes. He states he has to choose each month whether his wages should go to rent or to health insurance because he can not coverboth on his income. (I did well to bite my tongue as a stipended intern and student who can really relate to that, yes? Do I hear an "Amen"!?) Anyway, Leon is a marginalized worker who takes great risks to step forward, but nonetheless, he has signed a petition to ask the CEO of the hospital system to increase the hourly wages, and allow the profits being made, to trickle down to those such as himself, who do the often un-noticed work of pushing food trays, or cleaning bathrooms. He even gave an interview, complete with his picture, to an AFSCME newsletter, reporting on low wage workers struggles.

For any of you who are Chicago-based, please accept my invitation to join one or both of our upcoming actions where you will hear from Leon and other workers who are asking for a living wage. You will also be joining other religious leaders of all different faiths, to stand with their Catholic brothers and sisters who have asked that this (after almost five years) becomes an interfaith religious effort- to help amplify their critiique of the mission of Resurrection Hospitals in Chicago.

August 1st is an informal dinner at 6 pm at AFSCME at the 5509 N. Cumberland Ave. Chicago office, for religious leaders and workers (as mentioned, from some of the lowest paying posts in the hospitals... laundry, food service, and environmental services.) This will be an intimate and informative chance to hear directly from workers, as well as connect with these other interfaith leaders who are becoming increasingly concerned about what is happening at Resurrection.

A significant portion of these service workers (almost 1/3 of the workers!) have signed a petition this summer with AFSCME, asking CEO Joseph Toomey for a wage increase. We have not gotten a response yet, and in the past, the experience of the workers has been that a reply may not come any time soon!

So, if there is no response, workers and religious leaders and AFSCME are going to bring the petition of signatures right to the Sisters of the Resurrection in management. So in preparation that this will be necessary, we also want to invite you to join with us on August 6, at 6 pm, for a Prayer Vigil at the Resurrection Medical Center as a delegation brings the petition directly to the Sisters of the Resurrection at their residence at 7435 W. Talcott Ave. Chicago 60657.

I know that those of you at work in Chicago have incredibly demanding schedules as well, so I hope that if you can not come, that this will serve as a little boost of an update (for all interns since we were together at our orientation) as to what has been happening on the campaign for workers from Chicago in their effort to form a union with AFSCME to put a stop to the injustices, such as un-livably low wages, from Resurrection Hospitals.

These two events will be the culminating focal points of the internship this summer for myself and the intern from JCUA. Our work has been to help build broader religious leader support, to offer another tier of religious voices, as the Catholic ones become integrated with other voices of the faithful. We are looking forward to August 1 and August 6, after working on the turn out on many different levels all summer (such as all the relationship building that is so hard to measure- whether it be 1:1's or calls, etc!) I will keep you posted.