| Brothers and Sisters, I was happy and priviledged to be part of the first Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice conference held in Los Angeles last weekend right before the AFL-CIO meeting. Some old friends were there, plus many new people who are anxious to help working people in their local struggles. The dean of Catholic labor priests, Monsignor George Higgens, was there along with Father Jack Egan who celebrated his 83rd birthday with us. (I know Monsignor Charles Owen Rice is in his 90's, so God must let these labor clergy live extra long! We heard John Sweeney, Linda Chavis-Thompson, from the AFL, and attended workshops on farm-workers, locked-out workers, and poultry workers. It is truly amazing to see the many different struggles going on all over the US! At a labor concert held at University of Southern California, where workers just got a contract after 4 years, old labor songs were sung, and truly interfaith musicians who were rabbis and priests plucked their instruments and told of the history of their religious backing of unions. Los Angeles is an inspiration - over 80,000 workers have been organized in the past year. We want the East Coast to keep up! Definetely there is more energy seeing how hard workers fight for justice. |
Internet Board