Interfaith Worker Justice
Encyclopedia
Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
religious organization that educates and mobilizes the religious people of all faiths in the United States
on issues important to working people.
IWJ is governed by a 40-member board of directors, on which Mahdi Bray
serves.http://www.iwj.org/detail/person.cfm?person_id=69 The president of the board is the Rev. Nelson Johnson, pastor of Faith Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina
. The executive director is Kim Bobo
.
In 1910, the Rev. Charles Stelzle, a Presbyterian Church
pastor, established the Labor Temple in New York City
. The Labor Temple was a church but also a meeting space, union hiring hall, and school. Stelzle, a proponent of the social gospel
, promoted the establishment of similar Labor Temples nationwide (although many of them were secular in nature). For years, the New York City Labor Temple was the center of the city's union life. But most local Labor Temple movements did not survive the 1930s.
That same year, the American Federation of Labor
(AFL) undertook a program called "Labor Forward
". The program, which lasted until 1920, took place in approximately 150 cities across the United States. It was designed to convince workers of the labor movement's commitment to Christian ideals and labor-management cooperation.
In 1920, the organization later known as the National Farm Worker Ministry was founded to support agricultural workers. The organization was originally called the Council of Women for Home Missions, and its mission was to provide day-care for workers' children. In 1926, the organization changed its name to the National Migrant Ministry, and was now sponsored by the Federal Council of Churches (the forerunner to the National Council of Churches
). By 1939, the organization had established workers' rights and worker support programs in 15 states. The California Migrant Ministry played a key role in supporting Cesar Chavez
and the founding of the United Farm Workers
.
In 1932, the Federal Council of Churches established the National Religion and Labor Foundation (later called the Religion and Labor Council of America). The foundation was organized by Willard Uphaus, a professor at Yale Divinity School
. It sponsored internships and fellowships for religious people within labor unions, supported programs for seminary students to attend the AFL (and, later CIO
) conventions, and advocated on behalf of workers in various labor disputes. For many years, it published the newsletter Just Economics, which pushed progressive economic policies. But the organization dissolved in 1966.
A variety of Catholic-sponsored pro-labor movements also sprung up during the 1930s. In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement
, founded by Dorothy Day
and Peter Maurin
, began to support labor unions as means to ensure worker justice. In 1937, John Cort
founded the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, an organization of Catholic trade union members and supporters. Similarly, 1936 saw the organization of hundreds of Catholic "labor schools" -- adult education centers which taught industrial relations, collective bargaining and employment law to workers. The labor school movement was sponsored by the National Catholic Welfare Conference (forerunner to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
. Most schools were organized by local priests, dioceses and/or Catholic colleges. Although more than 150 labor schools were initially established, by 1956 only 49 were still operating. In 1962 there were only 15, and in 2007 only one (in Boston, Massachusetts).
In 1934, leaders of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
, the Jewish Labor Bund, the United Hebrew Trades and other organizations founded the Jewish Labor Committee
. The secular organization was founded to organize opposition to the rise of Nazism in Germany - see particularly Gail Malmgreen's article, below. Today, the organization works as the liaison agency linking the organized Jewish community and organized labor. The organization, has national offices in New York, with local staffed offices and/or lay-led groups in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, Cleveland and elsewhere.
and an instructor at the Midwest Academy
. In 1989, Bobo became involved with workers' rights campaigns for coal miners. She was startled to find that almost no religious organizations had labor liaisons. She started an informal network of religious leaders to share information about campaigns for worker justice that year.
In 1991, Bobo founded the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues. It was an all-volunteer group led by Bobo and four influential Chicago religious leaders.
In 1996, using a $5,000 inheritance from her grandmother, Bobo launched the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. The organization initially was run out of her home.
By 1998, the organization had 29 affiliates throughout the country. The group changed its name to Interfaith Worker Justice in 2005, by which time it had grown to 59 local affiliates and a full-time staff of 10.
IWJ has been active on a number of worker's rights and worker justice issues. It has taken a lead role in criticizing Wal-Mart
for forcing employees to work off the clock, not providing affordable or comprehensive health insurance, and refusing to pay an adequate wage. In 2006, the group sued the United States Department of Labor
to obtain the names of migrant agricultural workers who had been victims of unpaid overtime. It has also been active in supporting higher wages for workers and the use of unionized laborers in the reconstruction of New Orleans
, and condemned the importation of lower-paid illegal immigrants to displace American workers.
Interfaith Worker Justice also sponsors "Seminary Summer." The program is an annual one in which IWJ places student ministers, priests, rabbis and imams with AFL-CIO affiliates so that these emerging religious leaders can participate in worker justice campaigns and learn about labor issues.
/on the Bimah
/in the Minbar
" program placed pro-union speakers in houses of worship during Labor Day
weekend.
Some of these issues were resolved in late 2006. In August 2006, the AFL-CIO executive council approved a resolution permitting the organization to formalize ties with worker centers, worker assistance groups, and other pro-labor organizations. In December 2006, the AFL-CIO signed a partnership agreement with Interfaith Worker Justice which renewed the AFL-CIO's support for IWJ. The partnership agreement was labeled "mostly symbolic" but initiated state and local planning efforts for ongoing and new programs.
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....
religious organization that educates and mobilizes the religious people of all faiths in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on issues important to working people.
IWJ is governed by a 40-member board of directors, on which Mahdi Bray
Mahdi Bray
Wright Mahdi Bray , a Black American convert to Islam, is a civil and human rights activist who serves as Executive Director of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation based in Washington, DC...
serves.http://www.iwj.org/detail/person.cfm?person_id=69 The president of the board is the Rev. Nelson Johnson, pastor of Faith Community Church in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
. The executive director is Kim Bobo
Kim Bobo
Kim Bobo is a religious and workers' rights activist, and executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice. She is widely quoted in newspapers and broadcast media as an expert on worker justice issues.-Life and career:...
.
Religious labor movement
Religious organizations and the American labor movement have a long history of interaction and mutual support. But large, formal, national organizations can be traced only to the early part of the 1900s, and most had folded by the 1960s.In 1910, the Rev. Charles Stelzle, a Presbyterian Church
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Presbyterian Church , or PC, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Part of the Reformed tradition, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the U.S...
pastor, established the Labor Temple in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The Labor Temple was a church but also a meeting space, union hiring hall, and school. Stelzle, a proponent of the social gospel
Social Gospel
The Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
, promoted the establishment of similar Labor Temples nationwide (although many of them were secular in nature). For years, the New York City Labor Temple was the center of the city's union life. But most local Labor Temple movements did not survive the 1930s.
That same year, the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
(AFL) undertook a program called "Labor Forward
Labor Forward
The Labor Forward movement was an organizing program of the American Federation of Labor from roughly 1910 to 1920. The program, which took place in approximately 150 cities across the United States, was designed to convince workers of the labor movement's commitment to Christian ideals and...
". The program, which lasted until 1920, took place in approximately 150 cities across the United States. It was designed to convince workers of the labor movement's commitment to Christian ideals and labor-management cooperation.
In 1920, the organization later known as the National Farm Worker Ministry was founded to support agricultural workers. The organization was originally called the Council of Women for Home Missions, and its mission was to provide day-care for workers' children. In 1926, the organization changed its name to the National Migrant Ministry, and was now sponsored by the Federal Council of Churches (the forerunner to the National Council of Churches
National Council of Churches
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace...
). By 1939, the organization had established workers' rights and worker support programs in 15 states. The California Migrant Ministry played a key role in supporting Cesar Chavez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
and the founding of the United Farm Workers
United Farm Workers
The United Farm Workers of America is a labor union created from the merging of two groups, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Filipino organizer Larry Itliong, and the National Farm Workers Association led by César Chávez...
.
In 1932, the Federal Council of Churches established the National Religion and Labor Foundation (later called the Religion and Labor Council of America). The foundation was organized by Willard Uphaus, a professor at Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
. It sponsored internships and fellowships for religious people within labor unions, supported programs for seminary students to attend the AFL (and, later CIO
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
) conventions, and advocated on behalf of workers in various labor disputes. For many years, it published the newsletter Just Economics, which pushed progressive economic policies. But the organization dissolved in 1966.
A variety of Catholic-sponsored pro-labor movements also sprung up during the 1930s. In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ." One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on...
, founded by Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of Distributism. She was also considered to be an anarchist, and did not hesitate to use the term...
and Peter Maurin
Peter Maurin
Peter Maurin was a Roman Catholic social activist who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 with Dorothy Day.Maurin expressed his ideas through short pieces of verse that became known as - Biography :...
, began to support labor unions as means to ensure worker justice. In 1937, John Cort
John Cort
John C. Cort , was a longtime Christian socialist writer and activist. He was the co-chair of the Religion and Socialism Commission of the Democratic Socialists of America.He was based in metropolitan Boston, Massachusetts...
founded the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, an organization of Catholic trade union members and supporters. Similarly, 1936 saw the organization of hundreds of Catholic "labor schools" -- adult education centers which taught industrial relations, collective bargaining and employment law to workers. The labor school movement was sponsored by the National Catholic Welfare Conference (forerunner to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
. Most schools were organized by local priests, dioceses and/or Catholic colleges. Although more than 150 labor schools were initially established, by 1956 only 49 were still operating. In 1962 there were only 15, and in 2007 only one (in Boston, Massachusetts).
In 1934, leaders of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membership, and a key player in the labor history of the 1920s and 1930s...
, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America was a United States labor union known for its support for "social unionism" and progressive political causes. Led by Sidney Hillman for its first thirty years, it helped found the Congress of Industrial Organizations...
, the Jewish Labor Bund, the United Hebrew Trades and other organizations founded the Jewish Labor Committee
Jewish Labor Committee
The Jewish Labor Committee is an American secular Jewish organization dedicated to promoting labor union interests in Jewish communities, and Jewish interests within unions. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with local/regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago...
. The secular organization was founded to organize opposition to the rise of Nazism in Germany - see particularly Gail Malmgreen's article, below. Today, the organization works as the liaison agency linking the organized Jewish community and organized labor. The organization, has national offices in New York, with local staffed offices and/or lay-led groups in Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, Cleveland and elsewhere.
Founding IWJ
Kim Bobo founded Interfaith Worker Justice in 1991 as Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues. Bobo had previously been director of organizing at Bread for the WorldBread for the World
Bread for the World is a non-partisan, Christian citizens' movement in the United States to end hunger. The organization describes itself as a collective Christian voice urging nation's decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad...
and an instructor at the Midwest Academy
Midwest Academy
The Midwest Academy is a community organizer training institute committed to "advancing the struggle for social, economic, and racial justice," founded in 1973 and based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. From local neighborhood groups to statewide and national organizations, Midwest Academy has trained...
. In 1989, Bobo became involved with workers' rights campaigns for coal miners. She was startled to find that almost no religious organizations had labor liaisons. She started an informal network of religious leaders to share information about campaigns for worker justice that year.
In 1991, Bobo founded the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues. It was an all-volunteer group led by Bobo and four influential Chicago religious leaders.
In 1996, using a $5,000 inheritance from her grandmother, Bobo launched the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. The organization initially was run out of her home.
By 1998, the organization had 29 affiliates throughout the country. The group changed its name to Interfaith Worker Justice in 2005, by which time it had grown to 59 local affiliates and a full-time staff of 10.
IWJ has been active on a number of worker's rights and worker justice issues. It has taken a lead role in criticizing Wal-Mart
Criticism of Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has been subject to criticism by various groups and individuals. Among these are some labor unions, community groups, grassroots organizations, religious organizations, environmental groups and Wal-Mart customers. They have protested against Wal-Mart, the company's policies and business...
for forcing employees to work off the clock, not providing affordable or comprehensive health insurance, and refusing to pay an adequate wage. In 2006, the group sued the United States Department of Labor
United States Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor is a Cabinet department of the United States government responsible for occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, re-employment services, and some economic statistics. Many U.S. states also have such departments. The...
to obtain the names of migrant agricultural workers who had been victims of unpaid overtime. It has also been active in supporting higher wages for workers and the use of unionized laborers in the reconstruction of New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, and condemned the importation of lower-paid illegal immigrants to displace American workers.
Interfaith Worker Justice also sponsors "Seminary Summer." The program is an annual one in which IWJ places student ministers, priests, rabbis and imams with AFL-CIO affiliates so that these emerging religious leaders can participate in worker justice campaigns and learn about labor issues.
Post-AFL-CIO breakup issues
The disaffiliation of several AFL-CIO unions in 2005 led to several significant problems for IWJ. Over half of IWJ's Seminary Summer students worked with unions that split from the AFL-CIO. The split forced the AFL-CIO to halve its donations to IWJ. The split also significantly impaired the ability of the AFL-CIO's state and central labor bodies to conduct their work. IWJ relied heavily on these bodies for staff and money; the bodies also sponsored the IWJ/AFL-CIO annual "Labor in the PulpitPulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
/on the Bimah
Bimah
A bimah A bimah A bimah (among Ashkenazim, derived from Hebrew בּמה , almemar (from Arabic al-minbar) or tebah (among Sephardim) is the elevated area or platform in a Jewish synagogue which is intended to serve the place where the person reading aloud from the Torah stands during the Torah reading...
/in the Minbar
Minbar
A minbar is a pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons or in the Hussainia where the speaker sits and lectures the congregation...
" program placed pro-union speakers in houses of worship during Labor Day
Labor Day
Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.-History:...
weekend.
Some of these issues were resolved in late 2006. In August 2006, the AFL-CIO executive council approved a resolution permitting the organization to formalize ties with worker centers, worker assistance groups, and other pro-labor organizations. In December 2006, the AFL-CIO signed a partnership agreement with Interfaith Worker Justice which renewed the AFL-CIO's support for IWJ. The partnership agreement was labeled "mostly symbolic" but initiated state and local planning efforts for ongoing and new programs.