|
Table of Contents
Connecting
Your Congregation
District
President’s Column
Qiyamah’s
Corner
Ministerial
Matters
Lifespan
REmarks
Field Staff
Calendar / Save this Date!
Your Wild(e)
Trustees Report
Chalice
Lighter Update/1st Annual NC Choral Festival
A Victory for
Poultry Workers in NC!
Mind the Gap
Walking
Lightly on the Earth
Rev. Bill
Sinkford to Keynote TJD Anti-Racism Conference / TJD Young Adult & Campus
Ministry Midwinter Retreat
GLBT Issues /
TJ District Fair Share
Beacon Press
/ Reflection on FLC / Request for Proposals /A Day of Possibilities
Open
Positions / Visit Northern VA!
Resources for
Congregational Leaders
Lay
Leadership Development / The Flaming Chalice
District
Calendar |
A Victory for Poultry Workers in North Carolina!!
From the UUs for a Just Economic Society
North Carolina is a critical arena for labor organizing
both for poultry workers and for other labor allies. Many witnessed a
major victory for poultry workers this year:
-
Perdue has agreed to pay over $10 million in back wages
to approximately 25,000 workers (averages to $400 per worker.) This
settlement pays for eight minutes a day of “donning and doffing” that
had not been paid. In addition, Perdue will commit resources to finding
the workers owed the money. This is one of the largest settlements the
Department of Labor (DOL) has ever made.
-
Perdue has agreed to bring all plants into full
compliance.
-
The DOL has sued Tyson and is seeking a national
injunction restraining Tyson from future violations of the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA) at all of its domestic poultry processing
facilities. The suit is filed on behalf of workers in Tyson’s
Bloutsville, AL plant.
UUs for a Just Economic Society accomplished the
following over the last few years:
1. Began their DOL “advocacy” in 1996, by publicly calling on the DOL to
investigate the industry, which the DOL committee is doing.
2. Developed and publicized a Code of Conduct for poultry workers.
3. Organized fact-finding delegations to poultry plants (1996-1998).
4. Distributed thousands of bulletin inserts to congregations near poultry
plants informing workers about lawsuits they could file to recover back
wages.
5. Created and distributed poultry worker’s rights manuals for Georgia and
Arkansas in English and in Spanish.
6. Advocated with DOL after 1997 survey showing 60 percent noncompliance
to create worker rights materials (which wasn’t done then.)
7. Held multiple press conferences highlighting abuse in the industry.
8. Distributed thousands of videos and manuals by volunteers, six interns
and National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice (NICWJ) staff.
9. Supported the Catholic Bishops of the South in the development of the
Pastoral Statement and then distributed Statement widely.
10. Wrote and distributed a Methodist study guide on poultry issues (in
English and in Spanish) to Methodist congregations in the South.
11. Sought and finally got a meeting for a delegation of 25 religious
leaders with Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, in June of 2001 to discuss
the DOL following through to collect back wages and force future
compliance.
12 Recruited over 150 religious leaders to sign a letter to Secretary of
Labor, Elaine Chao, asking her to recover back wages for poultry workers
and insist that companies pay workers for all hours worked.
13. Continued mobilizing people of faith to write and call Secretary of
Labor, Elaine Chao, through the Winter and Spring of 2001-2002.
14. Filed a Freedom of Information request for information on the poultry
investigation.
15. Organized a delegation that met on April 11, 2002, with Senator
Kennedy’s staff to discuss the ways to ensure that the DOL move forward on
seeking back wages for poultry workers.
What are the next steps? We should all:
1. Send a thank you letter to Secretary Elaine Chao. Her address is U.S.
Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20210.
The main point of the letter is to thank her. You can get a sample from
our website at www.nicwj.org or
www.nationalinterfaith.org
2. Continue monitoring and working with the DOL to follow-up with all
poultry companies.
3. Continue building support networks near poultry plants to assure that
workers know their rights so that they can become their own advocates,
individually and collectively, through unions. We hope to set up workers’
centers in Arkansas and North Carolina within the next few months.
4. Remember the importance of continued advocacy, say a prayer of thanks,
and keep moving!
Si, se puede! |
