Partners: Jobs with Justice, Faith Community
In 2011, anticipating a tough contract fight with Gannett, the United Media Guild added a clergyman to the unit’s bargaining team. In that contract, the lower-paid production assistants received a 10 percent pay hike — a raise the company originally had not been prepared to offer.
“I think it had everything to do with Rev. Rudy Pulido being there,” said Shannon Duffy, a business representative at the Guild local and labor co-chair for St. Louis Jobs with Justice whose idea it was to reach out to the faith community. “We started talking about how miserable workers’ pay is and asked, How can a corporation that has all this wealth pay their production assistants such a lowly wage?’ I think we shamed them.”
Pulido was inspired as well. The reverend began setting up seminars on collective bargaining for other faith leaders.
Soon, local clergy and union leaders launched what has become a monthly faith-labor breakfast in St. Louis. At “Labor in the Pulpit” events, union activists have picked up the microphone at weekend services to talk about workers’ issues.
At the 2012 Labor Day Parade, the faith community carried a huge banner in support
of workers.
And after scores of fast-food workers walked off the job to fight for higher wages and respect on the job in actions this year, each protester was accompanied by one religious leader and one labor leader when they returned to work. None of the fast-food strikers lost their jobs.
Staff workers at STL 735, a group that supports fast-food workers and their fight for fair wages and the right to form a union without retaliation at more than 15 restaurant chains, also have joined the Guild, further connecting and growing our movement.
“It’s exciting times. If we’re going to do anything substantial and make an impact, we have to think about