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Labor Conference Urges Episcopalians to Condemn Strike-breaking

Episcopal News Service. June 8, 1995 [95-1134]

Donn Mitchell

(ENS) A conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Social Security Act has called on the Episcopal Church to add Frances Perkins to its liturgical calendar and to condemn strike-breaking as a form of theft.

The Frances Perkins Memorial Conference on the Church and Labor Today, meeting on May 20 at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, urged participants to introduce the resolutions into their respective diocesan conventions and to attach memorials to the General Convention, set for 1997 in Philadelphia.

Perkins, who served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, was the principal architect and advocate of the Social Security Act as well as other labor law reforms. The first woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet, she had been an activist on behalf of workplace safety and the abolition of child labor.

A lifelong Anglo-Catholic, she was a member of Manhattan's Church of the Resurrection and a lay associate of All Saints' Sisters of the Poor, both of which joined with the dioceses of New York, Newark, Long Island, and Pennsylvania in co-sponsoring the conference. Mount Holyoke College, Perkins' alma mater, and the Episcopal Church's office of peace and justice ministries also were co-sponsors.

"Perhaps no other American had greater impact on the provision of human and social services, the relief of misery, and the creation of safe and just working conditions," the resolution said. "As both a woman who set precedents and as a layperson who effectively answered a call from God, she represents the best of the 20th century Church."

Violating the Eighth Commandment

As part of its focus on contemporary workplace concerns, the conference declared the acceptance of employment as a permanent replacement for striking workers to be a violation of the Eighth Commandment ("Thou shalt not steal"). The resolution also declared that hiring or threatening to hire permanent replacements violates the employer's duty to bargain in good faith as described in the Catechetical Commentary in the Book of Common Prayer.

The commentary states that the commandment obligates us to "be honest and fair in our dealings; to seek justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for all people; and to use our talents and possessions as ones who must answer for them to God. If a husband and wife were not on speaking terms, it would be immoral for a third party to intrude on that relationship in pursuit of personal advantage. The same is true of disagreements between employers and employees."

The changing face of labor

Among the other voices at the conference were:

  • The Rev. Greg Wood and nurses from 1199, the National Health and Human Services Union, who told the story of the first successful defeat of a permanent replacement effort at Mercy Hospital in Port Jervis, New York. They were joined by Jane Wood, a volunteer at the hospital, who walked the picket lines with the strikers.
  • The Rev. Richard Burnett, chair of the Economic Justice Committee of the Diocese of Long Island, who discussed the problems of middle and high-income corporate employees who had lost their jobs through downsizing. He noted that workers at this level tend to interpret the phenomenon as personal failure and are reluctant to discuss their experience in public forums such as a conference on the church and labor.
  • The Rev. David Schilling of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Ray Rogers of the Corporate Campaign who described ways in which church and community activities can support the cause of decent working conditions domestically and globally.
  • The Rev. Bertram Bennett of the Industrial Areas Foundation who spoke on the Campaign for a Living Wage, which has introduced legislation in New York and several other cities. The campaign seeks to prevent the deterioration of wages through privatization of city services by requiring city contractors to pay wages and benefits substantially above the federal minimum wage.
  • The conference opened with a celebration of the Eucharist, featuring a sermon by Ellen O'Hara, a first-year student at the General Theological Seminary. She discussed General Convention's 1916 resolution, which declared that "the service of the community and the welfare of the workers, not primarily profit, should be the aim of every industry and its justification; and that the church should seek to keep this aim constantly before the mind of the public."