Worker Solidarity Campaigns

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WIN works strategically to plan campaigns that support the efforts of workers to organize and strengthen unions. We see unions as a practical vehicle that allows many workers to climb out of poverty and become empowered in their workplaces and communities. In partnerships with unions WIN’s religious leaders shape and engage in direct actions that demonstrate the faith community’s moral concern and solidarity with workers in the community. We have worked alongside hotel workers, janitors, nurses, security officers, nursing home workers and many others in these campaigns for worker justice.

Security Officers and WIN Build Justice Together

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by admin

At 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9th, the bargaining team representing over 800 security officers with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in the Twin Cities reached a tentative agreement with their employers that establishes a new five-year contract. The agreement represents a huge step towards achieving the priorities of security officers around the Twin Cities.

The agreement came two days before officers were slated to start an open-ended strike, and on the heels of an intensive campaign among officers, religious leaders, people of faith, and other community leaders. (See “Building Justice for Building Workers in Minnesota” on p. 9 in the Winter Faith Works, the newsletter of our national affiliate Interfaith Worker Justice.)

In the weeks leading up to the agreement, 10 leaders from WIN offered themselves up for arrest in two civil disobedience actions that also included a significant number of clergy and people of faith who belong to WIN. In the second action, clergy jointed security officers, who were the first in the nation to put themselves forward for arrest, in an effort to protect and defend the community’s health care standards.

The contract delivers real improvements in the lives of security officers. Specifically, officers won:

  • Better pay: Wages for officers will increase by 50 cents an hour every year for the next five years. Officers currently earning the minimum wage in the industry ($10 an hour) will earn $13.20 an hour by the end of the contract.
  • A minimum wage that’s a living wage: The industry’s minimum wage was $10 an hour. That will increase to $12.50 an hour under the new contract.
  • Affordable health care coverage: Individuals who previously paid up to $150 a month for health insurance will pay $60 a month for health care in 2008 and $20 a month by the end of the contract. Also, officers will pay $260 a month for family health insurance beginning this year. Previously, officers paid $800 a month in premiums with the employer covering only 20 percent of the cost. Under this agreement, the employer will cover 65 percent of those costs.
  • Training and equipment that will keep officers safe: Officers are already being fitted for bullet proof vests!

“The religious community played a key role in this campaign to improve officers’ lives and to defend community standards,” said Matt Gladue, executive director of the Workers Interfaith Network. “In the end, so many clergy and people of faith got involved and showed real leadership because they saw the officers’ struggle as their struggle, too.”


Walking The Line: One Pastor’s Perspective/Caminando La Linea: La Perspectiva de un pastor

Posted on April 24th, 2008 by Danielle Pryor

Walking the picket line in my clerical collar, along with security officers and other labor and religious leaders in the one day strike for healthcare for local security officers, was inspiring. By participating I exercised a public leadership role we as clergy have to represent a Church concerned about justice.

I believe concern for justice flows naturally from Scripture and our faith. As a pastor, it’s easy for me to use the word “justice” in preaching and writing. But it’s far more challenging to take action steps that actually work toward justice. As someone who has not considered himself an “activist”, WIN has provided a way for me to put flesh on my words.
– Rev. Bruce Arnevik, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Mpls.

Para mí, fue un momento de inspiración el caminar la linea de piquete en mi collar de clérigo, junto con los oficiales de seguridad y otros líderes laborales y religiosos, en la huelga de un día para el cuidado de salud para oficiales de seguridad locales Al participar, yo ejercité un papel de liderazgo público que nosotros, como clérigos, deberíamos representar en una Iglesia comprometida con la justicia.

Yo creo que el compromiso con la justicia sigue naturalmente de las Escrituras hasta nuestra fe. Pero es un reto mucho más fuerte el tomar pasos hacia una acción que realmente trabaja por la justicia. Como alguien que no se considera a sí mismo como “activista,” WIN me ha dado un camino para darle cuerpo a mis propias palabras.
-Rev. Bruce Arnevik, Iglesia Luterana Santísima Trinidad, Minneapolis.