"A Foot in the Kitchen Door" Kitchen workers--all of them Mexican--huddled around a man who flipped sausage chunks onto a deep-dish pizza with the lightning-quick wrist snap of a blackjack dealer. Wearing a crisp Lou Malnati's polo shirt, he was teaching them the right way to build a Chicago food classic. The workers listened, and not just because Pedro Barrera is their boss. He is Mexican, too, and his story embodies their dreams: An immigrant arrives, unable to speak English, yet rises from busboy to store manager in about four years. Chicago Tribune 11/26/2006
Working for Respect There is a practical imperative for New Orleans to become a roll your sleeves up type of town instead of a let your hair down type of vacation site. The Big Easy must transform itself into the Grind if the city is to recover at an encouraging rate. City and state officials certainly acknowledge the value of hard work in their rhetoric around the rebuilding of New Orleans. However, will they push employers to respect blue collar labor enough to give hotel, construction, and hospital workers the financial ability to send their children to Tulane, Xavier, or UNO? Louisiana Weekly 11/20/2006
Religious Leaders, Hospital Workers Churches, synagogues and mosques throughout the state over the past few years have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of food, clothing, heating oil and medicine to help out laid-off workers. Many of those items have been distributed in northern Maine by the Eastern Maine Labor Council, located off South Main Street on Ivers Street. Bangor Daily News 8/12/2006
Protesters Pray for Higher Guard Wages (.pdf) sReligious leaders are turning to an ancient tactic in a bid to boost pay and benefits for downtown security guards-prayer. A diverse group of spiritual leaders from across the Boston area rallied in a bid to boost the wages and benefits for Boston security guards. The Boston Globe 8/4/2006
Labor Day Devotion: Faith Communities Focus on Workers
Many faith communities will use Labor Day to highlight employee struggles for fair pay, benefits and respect by participating in Labor In the Pulpits. The eight-year-old program promotes economic justice and strengthens labor-religious ties by having workers and union leaders speak to congregations about workplace challenges and campaigns. International Labor Communications Association 7-30-04
Sojourners Exclusive: Update on Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride
Riding a bus on the Miami route of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, Sister Barbara Pfarr came full circle. Before her current work with the Interfaith Worker Justice, she devoted 15 years to helping southern Florida farm workers. SojoNet 10-21-03
