AFL-CIO UNION, INTERFAITH COMMITTEE AND

RELIGIOUS GROUPS UNITE WITH NEW PLANS

LOS ANGELES (CWNews.com) Oct. 11, 1999 - Union and religious leaders gathered in a three-day conference over the weekend to discuss ways they could work together to organize workers in low-paying jobs traditionally ignored by unions.

The conference, coming before the AFL-CIO's annual convention which began on Monday, sought ways to solidify the relationship with a formal plan to increase wages and improve working conditions on farms and in hotels, restaurants, and other service industries. We believe that human beings are created in the image of God, and deserving of dignity and respect," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Friday in an opening speech.

"We believe that, together with family and faith, work is sacred because we pour into it our time and our talent and our creative capacity and our commitment to our loved ones," Sweeney said. Among the religious leaders attending the conference were Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and United Methodist Bishop Jesse DeWitt, president of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.

"We want to reaffirm our ministries and our mission. The mission of the labor movement is economic and social justice. The ministry of the church is feeding the poor and caring for the sick," said Arlene Holt, the AFL-CIO's liaison to religious groups. "We need to have a public policy that assures that." [Source: http://www.cwnews.com/index.cfm ]

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