Workers' religious networks play key role in labor organizing

U of Ideas of General Interest ó December 1998
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contact: Mark Reutter, Business & Law Editor
(217) 333-0568; [email protected]

UNIONS

Workersí religious networks play key role in labor organizing

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ó Two recent victories in Illinois arising from a coalition of labor and religious activists point to an effective new strategy for union organizing, a University of Illinois labor expert asserts.

Ronald J. Peters, a professor at the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, cited organizing victories by nurses at St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and food and beverage employees at OíHare Airport as prime examples of ways ìto publicize and champion workersí rightsî by building upon workersí religious networks.

ìBoth cases demonstrate the large variety of public and personal roles that religious persons can undertake in union campaigns,î Peters wrote in a chapter of ìOrganizing to Winî (Cornell University Press). ìThe very presence of clergy in religious garb at airport terminals, on picket lines and at bargaining tables heightened management accountability and improved its behavior toward the workers.î

In 1993, nearly 850 food and beverage concession workers won a contract following abortive attempts to organize dating back to 1980. The difference between the present and past campaigns, according to Peters, was the active involvement of religious leaders led by the Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues. Father John Celichowski, then a student at the Chicago Catholic Theological Seminary, helped organize a coalition of clergy from various faiths after he was contacted by the OíHare workers, many of whom were from Mexico and Central America.

Members of the Chicago-based group appeared at the food-service areas as observers of working conditions and talked to members of the Chicago City Council, which supervises concession stands at the airport. When an arbitrator ruled that a majority of the workers supported the union, the concessionaire, Carson International, agreed to negotiate a contract.

But the story was not over. While the talks ground on, workers and clergy learned that the operation was about to be sold to Marriott Corp. They mounted a vigorous ìcommunity-based campaignî to compel Marriott to recognize the union. ìThe workers finally joined the ranks of other unionized workers at OíHare, including flight crews, machinists and city employees,î Peters wrote.

The efforts to organize nurses at St. Joseph was notable because the hospital was owned by Franciscan nuns. When the nuns responsible for the hospitalís management proved unreachable, the Joliet Ecumenical Clergy Association challenged the hospitalís actions in light of the churchís teachings on social justice.

Peters concluded, ìThe workersí own religious organizations provided a ready source of contacts and support for building public pressure,î which in turn led to the recognition of the nursesí union in 1993. The U. of I. professor was assisted in his research by Theresa Merrill, a U. of I. masterís student.

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