Beginning in 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (comprised mostly of Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants in low-wage jobs) launched the Campaign for Fair Food, an initiative to encourage food retailers to pay farmworkers a penny more for each pound of tomatoes they pick.
Publix, a Florida-based retail food chain, is staunchly refusing to join the Campaign for Fair Food and end its exploitative business practices.
In an effort to alert Publix’s customers to this alarming decision and pressure the food retailer to join the campaign, the CIW, National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative, Florida Presbyterians and numerous other groups joined together at Publix’s Corporate Headquarters to begin a 6-day fast, “…insisting that Publix – Florida’s largest corporation – finally recognize the humanity of the workers who pick its tomatoes…”
Michael Livingston, a participant in the fast and Director of the NCC Poverty Initiative reflects on the solidarity between farmworkers and people of faith:
It’s day one of six days of fasting with farmworkers and their supporters at the corporate headquarters of Publix in Lakeland, FL. I’m already impressed with the quiet dignity of workers with whom I cannot communicate using the English I speak or the Spanish they speak. Yet we stand together under the same bright sun and our very presence alongside a busy thoroughfare, announces a firm commitment to seek justice for a workforce whose humanity has been ignored by a system of labor that is fundamentally unjust.
While retailers such as Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe’s and McDonald’s have joined the Fair Food Campaign, Publix’s refusal to join the campaign amounts to nothing short of a full endorsement of the inhumane wages workers are paid for their labor.
Bill Maxwell of the Tampa Bay Times criticizes Publix’s blatant exploitation of farm workers:
…each time I buy tomatoes at a Publix, I am mindful of the back-breaking toil of the laborers who picked them and lugged them to a truck. I also am aware that for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes picked, a worker gets on average 50 cents, a rate unchanged since 1980. Most workers earn roughly $10,000 a year. Besides low wages, they have no right to overtime pay, no health insurance, no sick leave, no paid vacation and no right to organize to change these conditions.
With CIW’s successful history of pressuring retailers to pay farmworkers a penny more per pound, it only remains to be seen how long Publix will choose to embarrass itself and denigrate its public image by abetting the exploitation of working people.
To stand with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the “Fast for Fair Food”, check out these resources.
Photo Credit: Fast for Fair Food
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Since the inception of the Occupy movement, we’ve highlighted the diverse ways that people of faith have contributed to the struggle for economic justice and financial reform—as well as some cases where the religious community ought to be doing more to stand in solidarity with Occupy protesters.
In contrast to Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church’s decision to deny Occupy protesters sanctuary after their eviction from Zucotti Park, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was a positive example of a religious community working together to support the Occupy movement’s push for a fair and moral economy. Occupy London protesters have been encamped at St. Paul’s Cathedral for the past four months. However, after the City of London Corporation – which owns most of the land around the cathedral – won its suit against Occupy London, the camp was forcibly evicted from St. Paul’s yesterday. As Simon Barrow, the co-director of the Christian think tank Ekklesia, put it:
“This is a very sad day. The Occupy camp at St Paul’s has been a powerful symbol of the need for concentrations of power to be made accountable, devolved, redistributed and just. Now corporate interests are evicting those who have disturbed their ‘business as usual’…As the eviction takes place, it is to be hoped that the Cathedral recalls its historic Christian duty to be a site of refuge for those fleeing violence and injustice.”
St. Paul’s role in the eviction remains unclear. In a statement released yesterday, cathedral officials noted they “regret the camp had to be removed by bailiffs,” but they remain “fully committed to continuing to promote these issues through our worship, teaching and Institute.” Nonetheless, Occupy London protesters are criticizing the cathedral for failing to take stronger actions to oppose the police action.
As the Occupy movement continues to make critical contributions to the global narrative about social and economic justice, religious communities have a moral obligation to support this prophetic call for a fair economy.
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Today, national faith leaders and organizations are celebrating the White House’s announcement of a common-sense, common-ground solution to religious liberty concerns around contraception coverage that protects women’s access to important preventive health care. The regulation expands religious exemptions within the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that contraceptive services be covered without copayment in health insurance plans, while guaranteeing that employees of religious institutions can obtain family planning and other preventive health services directly from their insurance providers. Below is a statement from Catholic and Protestant leaders celebrating the decision as “major victory for religious liberty and women’s health.”
Today the Obama administration announced an important regulation that will protect the conscience rights of religious organizations and ensure that all women have access to contraception without a co-payment. We applaud the White House for listening carefully to the concerns raised by religious leaders on an issue that has provoked heated and often misinformed debate. This ruling is a major victory for religious liberty and women’s health. President Obama has demonstrated that these core values do not have to be in conflict.
Specifically, this new regulation guarantees that no religiously affiliated institution will have to pay for services that violate its moral beliefs or even refer employees for this coverage. Instead, if a woman’s employer is an objecting university, hospital or other religious institution, her insurer will be required to offer her coverage at no cost. This is a sensible, common-ground solution.
In recent days, sound bites and divisive rhetoric have too often pitted the faith community against sound science and public health.The previous regulations caused an unnecessary conflict between the administration, the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. We are encouraged that the Obama administration has developed a substantive solution that addresses the concerns of the many constituencies involved. We look forward to bringing the same level of passion displayed in this debate to other pressing moral issues that face our nation.
Sister Simone Campbell
Executive Director
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Institute Leadership Team of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas
Douglas W. Kmiec
United States Amb. (ret)
Chair, Constitutional and Human Rights Law, Pepperdine University
Terrence W. Tilley
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Professor of Catholic Theology Chair, Theology Department
Fordham University
Nicholas P. Cafardi
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law
Duquesne University School of Law
Vincent J. Miller
Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture
University of Dayton
Kristin Heyer
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Santa Clara University
Gerald J. Beyer
Associate Professor of Theology
Saint Joseph’s University
Stephen Schneck
Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies
Catholic University of America
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza
Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Theological Studies Harvard Divinity School
Cambridge, MA
John Inglis
Chair and Professor of Philosophy
Cross-appointed to Religious Studies
University of Dayton
Bradford E. Hinze
Professor of Theology
Fordham University
Bronx, NY
David DeCosse
Director of Campus Ethics Programs
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
Santa Clara UniversitY
Todd Whitmore
Associate Professor of Theology
University of Notre Dame
Sr. Paulette Skiba
Professor of Religious Studies
Clarke University
Michael E. Lee
Associate Professor of Theology
Fordham University
Tobias Winright
Associate Professor of Theological Ethics
Saint Louis University
Richard R. Gaillardetz
McCarthy Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology
Boston College
Christopher Pramuk
Assistant Professor of Theology
Xavier University
Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
Professor of Theology
Chicago Theological Seminary
The Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin
Immediate Past President
National Council of Churches
Lisa Sharon Harper
Director of Mobilizing
Sojourners
Rev. Anne Howard
Executive Director
The Beatitudes Society
Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo
United Church of Christ
Justice and Witness Ministries
Rev. Richard Cizik
President
New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
Dr. David Gushee
Board Chair and Co-Founder
New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
Rev. Alexander Sharp
Executive Director
Protestants for the Common Good
Dr. Sharon E. Watkins
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada
Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston
Director
Disciples Justice Action Network (DJAN)
Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner
President
Skinner Leadership Institute
Linda Bales Todd
Director of Women’s Advocacy
General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
Jim Winkler
General Secretary
General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only
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In December, we blogged about Clergy for Tolerance, the new group of interfaith leaders in Tennessee pushing back on anti-immigrant rhetoric and legislation in their state.
The clergy coalition has seen major growth lately. According to Kathy Chambers, co-organizer of CFT, at the most recent meeting “almost half the attendees were new to Clergy for Tolerance, which shows this issue is gaining traction within the Middle Tennessee faith communities.”
She also explained that the 180th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee had adopted a resolution vowing to stand with immigrants and advocate for their protection. Most of the authors of the resolution attended the event.
Also at the meeting, members screened a new documentary produced by EthicsDaily.com on faith and immigration called “Gospel Without Borders.” The documentary highlights stories from five states dealing with the issue of immigration and its intersection with faith.
Following the film, a panel including Lutheran bishop Julian Gordy discussed the challenge facing the religious community in Southeastern states:
Tennessee has not passed any restrictive immigration legislation yet, Gordy said, but such has been proposed, and it will be proposed again this year. Alabama and Georgia (states in the ELCA’s Southeastern Synod) have passed laws that Gordy called “very mean-spirited.”
“In those states, almost all religious communities have come together, at least officially, to oppose what the state has done,” said Gordy. “Now granted, most of the people who proposed and passed those laws were also members of the congregations of those churches that came together to oppose it.”
Watch a teaser of the film below:
Learn more about the documentary at EthicsDaily.com and watch more trailers on their Vimeo channel.
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Hamil R. Harris at the Washington Post talks with African-American clergy who are embracing the 99% movement as an important ally in the fight for economic justice.
Some critics say the focus of the Occupy movement, which by design does not have leaders, is unclear. But [Occpuy the Dream co-founder Rev. Jamal Harrison] Bryant, who observed the movement from a distance before deciding he wanted to be part of it, was adamant that Occupy the Dream has a defined agenda.
“Number one, we are asking for more Pell grants so that our young people might be able to compete and go to colleges and universities,” he said. “Number two, we are asking for an immediate freezing on foreclosures.” The group is also seeking billions of dollars “from Wall Street for economic development and for job training.”
Beginning in February, Bryant plans to launch a campaign to urge people to bank only at minority-owned financial institutions.
Bryant, 40, a former national youth director for the NAACP, said his involvement in Occupy the Dream feels like he’s “coming home” to his civil rights roots.
“I think the Occupy Wall Street movement has held the legacy of Dr. King and has brought the church back into accountability,” Bryant said. “Dr. King would be here today. He wouldn’t be at a breakfast; he wouldn’t be at a mall. He would be here with us.”
Read the whole thing here.
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